Paleontologists discover a new species of North African predatory dinosaur in archived images

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SNSB and LMU Paleontologists have identified a new species of predatory dinosaur from the Cretaceous period in North Africa, about 95 million years old. What makes this discovery so special is that the original fossil from Egypt was completely destroyed 80 years ago, during World War II.

The researchers analyzed previously unknown archival photographs of the dinosaur skeleton from the period before 1944. The findings are published in the journal PLOS ONE.

The fossil's eventful history stretches far back into the past: The original skeleton of the large predatory dinosaur was described by the Munich paleontologist Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach (1871–1952). It was excavated in 1914 during an expedition in the Bahariya Oasis in Egypt and was sent to Stromer in Munich shortly after.

There it was stored together with other Egyptian dinosaur fossils in the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology, which at that time was located in the Old Academy in the center of Munich. Stromer assigned the fossil to the genus Carcharodontosaurus, shark-toothed lizard. At about 10 meters long, it was one of the largest known land-based carnivores in the history of the Earth—comparable in size to the slightly younger Tyrannosaurus rex from North America.

On July 21, 1944, the Old Academy building was hit by an allied air raid on Munich and completely burned. A large part of the collection at the time, including all Egyptian dinosaur fossils, fell victim to the bombing. After that, it was quiet around the giant Egyptian predator for a long time and the finds were forgotten. The only remnants of the Cretaceous dinosaurs of Egypt are Stromer's notes, illustrations of the bones and a few photos of the original skeletons.

During the new research, the paleontologist Maximilian Kellermann, a master's student at the LMU München, came across new, previously unknown photos of the predatory dinosaur. The pictures show the original skeleton from Egypt—parts of the skull, spine and hind limbs—before its destruction in the exhibition at the Alte Akademie. Kellermann evaluated the new images together with dinosaur specialist Prof. Oliver Rauhut from the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology (SNSB-BSPG) and Dr. Elena Cuesta from LMU.

"What we saw in the historical images surprised us all. The Egyptian dinosaur fossil depicted there differs significantly from more recent Carcharodontosaurus finds in Morocco. Stromer's original classification was thus incorrect. We identified a completely different, previously unknown predatory dinosaur species here and named it Tameryraptor markgrafi," says Maximilian Kellermann, first author of the study.

Tameryraptor was about 10 meters long, had symmetrical teeth and a prominent nasal horn. The name refers to the ancient name for Egypt, "Tamery", the promised land, and honors Stromer's fossil collector Richard Markgraf, who excavated the dinosaur's remains. The researchers found that the dinosaur was closely related to the North African and South American Carcharodontosaurs, as well as to a group of predatory dinosaurs from Asia, the Metriacanthosaurs.

"Presumably, the dinosaur fauna of North Africa was much more diverse than we previously thought. This work shows that it can be worthwhile for paleontologists to dig not only in the ground, but also in old archives," says Rauhut. "However, a more comprehensive assessment of the Cretaceous predatory dinosaur fauna from the Bahariya Oasis would require the recovery of more fossils from the site."

More information: Maximilian Kellermann et al, Re-evaluation of the Bahariya Formation carcharodontosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) and its implications for allosauroid phylogeny, PLOS ONE (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0311096

Journal information: PLoS ONE

Provided by The Bavarian Natural History Collections