First European megaraptoran dinosaur identified from 102-year-old Isle of Wight fossil

Overview

Updated 6 hours ago

A fossil that spent more than a century in a London museum drawer has a new identity. Researchers identified the skull fragment, collected on the Isle of Wight in the 1920s, as a new species of megaraptoran, a tiger-sized, long-clawed predator related to Tyrannosaurus rex.

The find, named Invictibellatrix amberina, is the first megaraptoran ever found in Europe. It closes a gap in how these dinosaurs spread: they originated in Asia, moved through Europe, and became apex predators across the southern continents, but European evidence was missing until now.

Why it matters

The find places a dinosaur group once thought absent from Europe on the map, closing a key gap in Cretaceous megapredator spread.

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Key Indicators

1st

Megaraptoran specimens found in Europe before this discovery

Invictibellatrix amberina is the first member of its group identified from Europe.

102 years

Time the fossil sat unstudied

Collected in 1924 and identified in 2026, the specimen was overlooked for a century.

~120 million

Years ago Invictibellatrix lived

The specimen comes from the Barremian stage of the Lower Cretaceous Wessex Formation.

Voices

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People Involved

Dr Cassius Morrison

Lead author, researcher at UCL Earth Sciences

Led the study that identified the new species

Charlie Scherer

Co-author, PhD student at UCL Earth Sciences

Co-authored the paper describing the species

Reginald Walter Tooley

Amateur palaeontologist who found the fossil

Found the specimen in the early 1920s

Organizations Involved

Natural History Museum, London

Research Institution

Repository of the fossil, specimen NHMUK PV R6775

The London museum has held the braincase fragment in its collections since 1924, where it sat unstudied for a century.

UCL Earth Sciences

University research department

Research team that identified the new species

The University College London department where Morrison and Scherer did their work on the fossil.

Royal Society Open Science

Peer-reviewed scientific journal

Published the paper describing the species

The open-access journal of the Royal Society that published the study identifying the new dinosaur.

Timeline

May 1924 October 2026

2 events Latest: Today

October 2026
Paper names Invictibellatrix amberina
Today Publication

Research in Royal Society Open Science identifies the specimen as a new species and the first megaraptoran found in Europe.
Today
May 1924
Natural History Museum acquires the fossil
Acquisition

The braincase fragment, found on the Isle of Wight by amateur palaeontologist Reginald Walter Tooley, is purchased by the museum from Rev. R. W. Hooley.
May 1924

Scenarios

Second European megaraptoran described

Possible Resolves by Oct 14, 2028

Discussed by: The research team, whose biogeographic modeling suggests megaraptorans were globally widespread in the Early Cretaceous and that the absence of later European finds reflects regional extinction rather than the group never being there.

If the paper's model holds, more European megaraptoran fossils should surface as researchers re-examine museum specimens they once dismissed, or from new fieldwork. The team's analysis found megaraptorans were cosmopolitan in the Early Cretaceous, so European representatives should exist in other collections.

Invictibellatrix's classification is revised

Unlikely Resolves by Oct 14, 2028

Discussed by: Paleontologists who note the identification rests on a single skull fragment; the paper itself flags that theropod braincases are morphologically conservative and that neurocranial characters carry phylogenetic weight.

The species is diagnosed from part of the back of a skull, a fragmentary base for a whole new taxon. Future studies with more complete megaraptoran skeletons could place the specimen elsewhere on the theropod tree. The paper's own phylogenetic analyses recovered it as an early-diverging member of Megaraptora.

Invictibellatrix remains Europe's only megaraptoran

Likely Resolves by Oct 14, 2028

Discussed by: The null case: the single braincase stays the only European evidence of the group, leaving the paper's biogeographic model untested by new finds.

The fossil may remain the sole European megaraptoran for years. Without a second specimen, the claim that megaraptorans spread through Europe rests on this one braincase, and the group's European chapter stays a single data point.

Historical Context

2 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

1824

Megalosaurus (1824)

William Buckland described Megalosaurus from jaw and limb fragments found in Stonesfield, Oxfordshire. It became the first dinosaur formally named in scientific literature, predating even the word 'dinosaur' itself, which Richard Owen coined in 1842.

Then

The discovery set off a wave of fossil hunting across England as other ancient reptiles came to light.

Now

Megalosaurus anchored the new science of paleontology and established Britain as the birthplace of dinosaur study.

Why this matters now

Like Invictibellatrix, Megalosaurus is a predatory theropod identified from fragmentary British remains that reshaped understanding of the dinosaurs that lived there.

1983-1986

Baryonyx (1983)

Amateur collector William Walker found a huge claw in a clay pit in Surrey, southeast England. Paleontologists Alan Charig and Angela Milner identified it as a new spinosaurid, a fish-eating theropod never before known in the UK, and named it Baryonyx walkeri in 1986.

Then

Baryonyx became one of Europe's most complete theropods and revealed that spinosaurids lived in what is now Britain.

Now

It expanded knowledge of Early Cretaceous theropod diversity in southern England, the same region and time as Invictibellatrix.

Why this matters now

Baryonyx was the first of its theropod group found in the UK, the same narrative as Invictibellatrix, and came from the same Cretaceous rocks of southeast England.