Bulldog-faced dinosaur resembled a T. rex on steroids in size and strength.

Countless big predatory dinosaurs have been discovered in Egypt's Bahariya Formation, including this massive carnivore.

One of the environments on Earth during its prehistoric era is considered among the most deadly on the planet. A team of paleontologists from Egypt and the United States recently discovered a huge fossil vertebra belonging to a newly described species of meat-eating abelisaurid dinosaur in the Bahariya Formation, a well-known fossil site in Egypt's the Sahara Desert. The abelisaurid dinosaurs were a group of bipedal, meat-eating dinosaurs that lived during the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago).

 

Like previous abelisaurids, the newly discovered dinosaurs had a truncated face resembling a bulldog's. And even though it appeared extremely dangerous, this carnivore probably wasn't the most powerful leader that roamed its territory.

 

According to Matthew Lamanna, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh and one of the researchers who discovered the dinosaur, "We're about 99 percent sure that, unlike some of its relatives from other times and places, this particular abelisaurid was not at the top of its food chain," Live Science reported in an email. Lamanna was also one of the researchers who discovered the dinosaur.

 

Even though Lamanna and his team of researchers only discovered one bone, they could recognize the fossil as a vertebra belonging to an abelisaurid immediately. This was made possible by the presence of features known as epipophyses. The definition of this multisyllabic word, according to Lamanna, is "sticky-outy portions on the top left and top right of the spine." At the Bahariya Formation location, the abelisaurid in question was the very first dinosaur of its genus to be found. The scientists concluded that the bone belonged to a previously unidentified species after conducting a computer-based examination of its anatomy. However, the species in question has not yet been given a scientific name. On June 8th, they released their findings to the public via publication in the Royal Society Open Science journal.

 

According to Smithsonian Magazine, an abelisaurid bore some resemblance to a corpulent Tyrannosaurus rex but had arms that were much more disproportionately short. They inhabited the Southern Hemisphere from the middle of the Jurassic period, around 170 million years ago, all the way up until the Cretaceous period was abruptly ended by the Chicxulub asteroid. During that time, they lived. According to the Natural History Museum in London, the horned Carnotaurus was a Patagonian predator that grew 25 feet (7.6 meters) long. This particular abelisaurid may be the most well-known. Its name comes from the Latin meanings for "flesh" and "bull," and animated versions of this terrifying predator have been featured in the "Jurassic Park" franchise as well as Apple TV's "Prehistoric Planet" (though its portrayals display varying degrees of scientific accuracy).

 

The researchers have a hunch that the newly discovered abelisaurid was not as large as the Carnotaurus and that it most likely only reached a length of between 16 and 20 feet (or 5 and 6 meters). And the newly discovered abelisaurid would have been a relative pimple on the face of the carnivores that shared its native habitat 98 million years ago if you compare it to those predators.

 

The Bahariya Formation was formerly home to a particularly dangerous slice of life that existed throughout the prehistoric era. This enormous mangrove swamp was home to a wide variety of fish, turtles, snakes, and even dinosaurs. The newly discovered abelisaurid would have shared its environment (in a metaphorical sense) with a T. rex doppelganger called Carcharodontosaurus, a mysterious giant therapod called Bahariasaurus (bipedal, three-toed dinosaurs), and the monstrous Spinosaurus, which had long and slender crocodilelike jaws and a sail growing from its back, as well as giant predatory fishes and a

 

According to Lamanna, it is unusual to find such a huge number of massive predators coexisting in a single ecosystem. He said that it is still a mystery how an environment that is 98 million years old could have supported not one but four enormous carnivorous dinosaurs.

 

The fossil that was just recently discovered and described can now be found in the Vertebrate Paleontology Center's permanent collection at Mansoura University in Egypt. In the not too distant future, Lamanna and his coauthors intend to go back to the Bahariya Formation to look for other bones belonging to their abelisaurid and perhaps even to give them a name.

 

Lamanna hoped other specimens of the Bahariya beast would surface "sooner or later."

Article source : https://www.livescience.com/bulldog-faced-abelisaurid-found-in-egypt

Image source  : https://pixabay.com/id/vectors/dinosaurus-tyrannosaurus-rex-hitam-309638/

What happened to Stan T. rex?

Why did they sell Stan the T. rex?

What is the most powerful T. rex?

How much did Stan the dinosaur sell for?