The dinosaur, named Invictibellatrix amberina, is estimated to have been three to four metres long and one and a half metres tall. Its claws may have been up to a couple of decimetres long.
For humans, the dinosaur would have been more dangerous than the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex, according to researcher Cassius Morrison of University College London (UCL).
"We would have been perfectly sized prey – about a third of their body weight. They would definitely have hunted us. A T. rex wouldn't have bothered, because we would have been too small," he says in a press release.
Found by amateur
The fossil of Invictibellatrix was found by an amateur palaeontologist on the Isle of Wight’s southwest coast. It eventually ended up at the Natural History Museum in London in 1924. There it lay forgotten in a box until a team of researchers examined it.
Using a CT scan of the fossil, the researchers were able to create a three-dimensional image of the skull and compare it with the remains of other two-legged, carnivorous dinosaurs. The comparisons showed that it was a new dinosaur species in the megaraptor group.
The remains of such a creature had never been found in Europe before. According to the researchers, Invictibellatrix amberina is one of the smallest members of this group and one of the earliest ever found. It lived around 120 million years ago.
Hope for more
The research team, whose study was published in Royal Society Open Science, hopes that the Isle of Wight - and other forgotten museum collections - can yield more finds.
“Despite over 200 years of collecting, the Isle of Wight continues to surprise us with new dinosaur species,” says Professor Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum, adding:
“Work of this kind shows the enormous value of studying historical museum collections.”
