An artist’s reconstruction of the newly named dinosaur whose remains were destroyed in a 1944 World War II … [+]
Paleontologists have identified a new species of dinosaur from a fossil destroyed during a World II air raid – not by examining the ancient remains, but by looking at their photos.
dinosaur, which scientists named Tameryraptor markgraphis a giant Egyptian predator from the Cretaceous period. She was about 32 feet tall, had symmetrical teeth and a prominent nose horn.
“It appears that the dinosaur fauna of North Africa was much more diverse than we previously thought,” Oliver Rauhut, a dinosaur specialist from the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology, said in a statement. “This work shows that it can be worthwhile for paleontologists to dig not only in the ground, but also in old archives.”
Rauhut co-authored a peer-reviewed study on the discovery published last week in the journal Plus One. The fossil that led to the discovery has a dramatic history.
The beast’s remains were first excavated in 1914 during an expedition to the Bahariya Oasis, a site in Egypt’s Western Desert known for unearthing additional dinosaur bones as well as ancient mummies and architectural treasures. Shortly thereafter, Munich paleontologist Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach studied the partial skeleton and assigned it to the genus Carcharodontosaurusa large carnivorous theropod that lived in northwest Africa between 100 and 94 million years ago.
The remains were stored with the Egyptian dinosaur fossils in the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology, which at the time was located in a building in the center of Munich. However, on July 21, 1944, an Allied air raid hit the paleontological museum, destroying many of the fossils inside, including Tameryraptor.
The skeletal remains of Tameryraptor markgrafia at an exhibition in Munich before a bomb destroyed the bones.
During new research throughout these decades, Maximilian Kellermann, a master’s student at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, came across previously unknown archival photos of the dinosaur from the Huene Archive at the German University of Tübingen, which displayed them in the 1940s. The images capture parts of the original skull, spine and hind limbs before the skeleton was hidden in WWII bombings.
Kellermann evaluated the images with Rauhut and Elena Cuesta, an LMU paleobiologist, focusing on features such as nasal cavities, jaw curvature and teeth.
In some parts of the images, low exposure and blurry details made it difficult to distinguish some features. But other elements, such as the angles of the bones, were clear enough that the photos — along with Stromer’s notes and old illustrations — made it clear to researchers that the dinosaur pictured was distinctly different from another. Carcharodontosaurus was found in Morocco in 1996 and officially named in 2007.
They concluded that Stromer’s original classification was incorrect and that they had identified an entirely different, previously unknown species of predatory dinosaur.
“We were very careful not to over-interpret things that weren’t 100 percent apparent from the photos,” Kellermann said in an interview. “We left out any uncertainty about the codes in our data, treating them simply as ‘missing data’ and showing them in our description as such. However, even with these uncertainties, it was clear that this was a different animal Carcharodontosaurus.”
The first word in Tameryraptor markography means “thief from the beloved land”, combining an informal ancient Egyptian name for Egypt (ta-mery), which translates to beloved land, with predator, the Latin word for thief. Markography honors fossil collector Richard Markgraf, who first excavated it.
“The rediscovery of interesting anatomical features from photographs of long-lost specimens is rare and somewhat unusual, but in some cases there is no better opportunity to place those specimens in scientific context,” Jack Tseng, Professor of integrative biology at the University. of California at Berkeley who was not involved in the research, said in an interview.
Can a species be reliably named from pictures?
Paleontologists rarely name new species without directly studying the fossils.
“In exceptional cases where the specimen in question is documented with an abundance of images and associated information, there may be a strong basis for erecting a new fossil species,” Tseng said. “In all other cases, there will always be some layer of uncertainty between the defining characteristics of new species identified from photographs and how reliable they can be when used in evolutionary analyses.”
In the new study, the researchers call their case exceptional, detailing the reasons why this dinosaur warranted a new nomenclature based on the available evidence. Chief among these is that Stromer’s descriptions and illustrations are highly accurate when compared to specimens that can still be studied at first hand, suggesting that his records are a reliable complement to the photographs.
The material described by Stromer has played a pivotal role in understanding the anatomy, phylogeny and evolution of carcharodontosaurids, they say, making it all the more important that the specimens collected in 1914 be accurately categorized.
Kellermann said he is excited that Egyptian colleagues are now working on collecting new fossils that could add to the scientific record of dinosaurs in the region.
“There’s a lot we still don’t know about the dinosaurs in that area,” Kellermann said. “While there is still little information to be gleaned from studying old literature and photographs, only new material will help shed a better light on this fascinating ecosystem.”
Paleontologist Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach’s original drawings of Egyptian dinosaur remains. … [+]