The dinosaur, described in a new paper in the journal Royal Society Open Science, belongs to a group of agile, two-legged carnivores called megaraptorans and is the first of this group to be found in Europe.
Megaraptorans were closely related to tyrannosaurs including Tyrannosaurus rex but had slender heads, attacking prey with their large arms and giant curved claws instead of their jaws.
While some species grew to gigantic sizes, just as tyrannosaurs did, this new species is one of the smallest and earliest of the group to be found, living in the UK in the Early Cretaceous period about 120 million years ago.
It has been named Invictibellatrix amberina. Invictibellatrix means “unconquered female warrior” – honouring megaraptorans’ future role as massive apex predators.
It was not the apex predator of its time, but for humans this dinosaur would have been more dangerous than a T. rex. We would have been perfectly sized prey, about a third of their body weight. They definitely would have chased us. A T. rex would not have bothered, as we would have been too small.
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