New Dinosaur Species Identified Decades After Fossil's WWII Destruction

Researchers reclassified a 95-million-year-old predator from Egypt, Tameryraptor markgrafi, using archival photos and notes after its original fossils were lost in a 1944 bombing.

Tameryraptor markgrafi, a newly identified predatory dinosaur, lived in North Africa 95 million years ago during the Cretaceous period.
The original fossil, discovered in Egypt's Bahariya Oasis in 1914, was destroyed in a World War II bombing in 1944, leaving only notes, illustrations, and photographs behind.
Researchers determined that the dinosaur, previously misclassified as Carcharodontosaurus, had unique features such as symmetrical teeth and a prominent nasal horn.
The species is closely related to North African and South American carcharodontosaurs and Asian metriacanthosaurs, suggesting greater diversity in North African dinosaur fauna than previously understood.
This discovery highlights the value of archival research in paleontology but underscores the need for new fossil finds to fully understand the region's prehistoric biodiversity.