New Dinosaur Species Identified from Lost WWII-Era Fossil Photos

Researchers in Munich have discovered a previously unknown predatory dinosaur species by analyzing archival images of a fossil destroyed during World War II.

• The newly identified species, named Tameryraptor markgrafi, lived approximately 95 million years ago during the Cretaceous period in North Africa.
• The dinosaur was about ten meters long, making it one of the largest land-based carnivores in history, comparable in size to the Tyrannosaurus rex.
• The original fossil was unearthed in Egypt in 1914 and stored in Munich until it was destroyed in a 1944 Allied air raid during World War II.
• A team led by Master’s student Maximilian Kellermann discovered previously unseen archival photos, which revealed the fossil had been misclassified as a member of the Carcharodontosaurus genus.
• The discovery suggests that the dinosaur diversity in North Africa during the Cretaceous period may have been greater than previously known, highlighting the value of archival research in paleontology.

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Augsburger Allgemeine Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung DER SPIEGEL