Behemoth horned dinosaur that roamed Earth 95million years ago discovered after fossils of 10metre beast were destroyed
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A GIANT horned dinosaur species has been unearthed - despite the bones' destruction in World War Two. The groundbreaking discovery of the 10-metre-long skeleton was made after paleontologists dug through photographic archives. The predatory dinosaur species, named Tameryraptor markgrafi, was originally discovered in 1914 by Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach who died in 1952.
![[Illustration of *Tameryraptor markgrafi*, a theropod dinosaur.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/implications-allosauroid-phylogeny-life-964500684.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The 95million-year-old skeleton was excavated in the Bahariya Oasis in Egypt before it was stored in the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology in Munich, Germany. The findings suggest there were more species of dinosaurs in North Africa than historians previously thought.
![[Photo of *Tameryraptor markgrafi* fossil bones on display.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/implications-allosauroid-phylogeny-https-964500683.jpg?strip=all&w=896)
The remains were destroyed along with other Egyptian discoveries when Munich was bombed in World War Two. Tragically the only remnants of the dinosaur discovery were Dr Stromer's notes, illustrations of the bones and black and white photographs of the skeletons.
![[Photograph of *Tameryraptor markgrafi* maxilla fossil with scale bar.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/implications-allosauroid-phylogeny-https-964500676.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The photos show parts of the dinosaur's skull, spine and legs. Maximilian Kellermann, the study's first author said: “What we saw in the historical images surprised us all. "The Egyptian dinosaur fossil depicted there differs significantly from more recent Carcharodontosaurus found 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,” he added. The word "Tamery" is the ancient name for Egypt and the species name "markgrafi" is a nod to Dr Stromer's fossil collector Richard Markgraf who performed the excavation.
