Don’t let this fella’s comically beady eyes fool you, they’re the eyes of a killer. Meet Tameryraptor markgrafi, or ‘thief from the beloved land,’ a dinosaur that once roamed Egypt 95 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. Towering at 33-feet, as tall as a telephone pole, this dinosaur is one of the largest land carnivores in history.
Image Credit: Metro [Reconstruction of Tameryraptor markgrafi (Artist: Joshua Kn?ppe) SNSB and LMU Paleontologists identify a new species of predatory dinosaur from the Cretaceous period in North Africa, around 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. For their work, the researchers analyzed previously unknown archival photographs of the dinosaur skeleton from the period before 1944. The findings are published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.]
German scientists discovered the fossilised remains of this bloodthirsty giant in the Bahariya Oasis in Egypt’s Western Desert in 1914. Palaeontologist Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach packed up the bones and moved them to the Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology in Munich.
Image Credit: Metro [Skeletal remains of Tameryraptor markgrafi in the exhibition at the Alte Akademie. Taken at an unspecified time before the material was destroyed in April 1944, University Archives T?bingen (photographer unknown) SNSB and LMU Paleontologists identify a new species of predatory dinosaur from the Cretaceous period in North Africa, around 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. For their work, the researchers analyzed previously unknown archival photographs of the dinosaur skeleton from the period before 1944. The findings are published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.]
But the specimen, originally classified as Carcharodontosaurus, meaning ‘shark-toothed lizard’, was destroyed during World War II when the museum was bombed on July 21 1944. The dino was soon ‘forgotten’, with the only evidence of it being a few sketches of the bones and the odd photograph, the Bavarian Natural History Collections said.
Image Credit: Metro [Stromer?s original drawings of the skeletal remains of Tameryraptor markgrafi (from Stromer E. Ein Skelett-Rest von Carcharodontosaurus nov. gen. Abh Bayer Akad Wissensch Mathematisch naturwissensch Abt. 1931;9: 1?31) SNSB and LMU Paleontologists identify a new species of predatory dinosaur from the Cretaceous period in North Africa, around 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. For their work, the researchers analyzed previously unknown archival photographs of the dinosaur skeleton from the period before 1944. The findings are published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.]
Now scientists have recreated Tameryraptor markgrafi for the first time using newly discovered images of the remains. Palaeontologist Maximilian Kellermann, a master’s student at LMU Munich, said his team were ‘surprised’ when they saw the images.
Image Credit: Metro [Skeletal remains of Tameryraptor markgrafi in the exhibition at the Alte Akademie. Taken at an unspecified time before the material was destroyed in April 1944, University Archives T?bingen (photographer unknown) recolored SNSB and LMU Paleontologists identify a new species of predatory dinosaur from the Cretaceous period in North Africa, around 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. For their work, the researchers analyzed previously unknown archival photographs of the dinosaur skeleton from the period before 1944. The findings are published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.]
The findings, published in PLOS ONE on Tuesday, described the predator as having symmetrical teeth, a nasal horn and an enlarged frontal brain. These features are fairly different from the genus Carcharodontosaurus that lived in Northwest Africa from about 100,000,000 years ago.
Image Credit: Metro [Photograph of the skull fragment of Tameryraptor markgrafi from the SNSB-BSPG archive, (Photo: SNSB-BSPG) SNSB and LMU Paleontologists identify a new species of predatory dinosaur from the Cretaceous period in North Africa, around 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. For their work, the researchers analyzed previously unknown archival photographs of the dinosaur skeleton from the period before 1944. The findings are published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.]
![[Reconstruction of Tameryraptor markgrafi (Artist: Joshua Kn?ppe) SNSB and LMU Paleontologists identify a new species of predatory dinosaur from the Cretaceous period in North Africa, around 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. For their work, the researchers analyzed previously unknown archival photographs of the dinosaur skeleton from the period before 1944. The findings are published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_236267097-7083.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
![[Skeletal remains of Tameryraptor markgrafi in the exhibition at the Alte Akademie. Taken at an unspecified time before the material was destroyed in April 1944, University Archives T?bingen (photographer unknown) SNSB and LMU Paleontologists identify a new species of predatory dinosaur from the Cretaceous period in North Africa, around 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. For their work, the researchers analyzed previously unknown archival photographs of the dinosaur skeleton from the period before 1944. The findings are published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_236267010-f50b.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
![[Stromer?s original drawings of the skeletal remains of Tameryraptor markgrafi (from Stromer E. Ein Skelett-Rest von Carcharodontosaurus nov. gen. Abh Bayer Akad Wissensch Mathematisch naturwissensch Abt. 1931;9: 1?31) SNSB and LMU Paleontologists identify a new species of predatory dinosaur from the Cretaceous period in North Africa, around 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. For their work, the researchers analyzed previously unknown archival photographs of the dinosaur skeleton from the period before 1944. The findings are published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_236267012-a73e.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
![[Skeletal remains of Tameryraptor markgrafi in the exhibition at the Alte Akademie. Taken at an unspecified time before the material was destroyed in April 1944, University Archives T?bingen (photographer unknown) recolored SNSB and LMU Paleontologists identify a new species of predatory dinosaur from the Cretaceous period in North Africa, around 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. For their work, the researchers analyzed previously unknown archival photographs of the dinosaur skeleton from the period before 1944. The findings are published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_236267011-ed2a.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
![[Photograph of the skull fragment of Tameryraptor markgrafi from the SNSB-BSPG archive, (Photo: SNSB-BSPG) SNSB and LMU Paleontologists identify a new species of predatory dinosaur from the Cretaceous period in North Africa, around 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. For their work, the researchers analyzed previously unknown archival photographs of the dinosaur skeleton from the period before 1944. The findings are published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_236267014-c111.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
