New species of carnivorous dinosaur discovered in Europe called Torvosaurus gurneyi
A group of scientists from Portugal has discovered a new species of dinosaur that is the largest land predator ever discovered in Europe. The discovery was made by paleontologists Christopher Hendrickx and Octavio Mateus from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Museu da Lourinhã in Portugal . The scientists have called the 33-foot-long dinosaur Torvosaurus gurneyi.
The scientists say that the super predator would have fed on the gigantic plant-eating dinosaurs that roamed during the Jurassic period in Europe. An amateur fossil hunter found the first remains of the species in 2003. Those remains were discovered in rock cliffs near Lisbon according to the scientists.
Along with the remains of a large dinosaur, what are thought to be the fossilized remains of embryos of the same species were discovered. The massive predator is believed to have roamed the Earth 150 million years ago and to have tipped the scales at 4-5 tons.
The massive beast has a skull almost 4-feet long and had sharp teeth that were 4-inches long. The team also believed that the dinosaur might have been covered with an early type of feather. This is the second species for the genus Torvosaurus that has been discovered, the other is called Torvosaurus tanneri. That other species lived in North America and was discovered in 1979. The scientists note that the gurneyi was already a fossil for 80 million years before the T-rex walked the Earth.
SOURCE: fox News