Giant horned dinosaur discovered in Egypt after fossils were destroyed in World War 2
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Findings suggest dinosaurs were much more diverse in North Africa than previously thought. Scientists have identified a new giant horned dinosaur species that roamed across modern-day North Africa about 95 million years ago, despite its fossilised remains being destroyed during the Second World War.
![[Reconstruction of Tameryraptor markgrafi]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/17/09/Screenshot-2025-01-17-at-3.06.11%E2%80%AFPM.jpg)
The 10-metre-long predatory dinosaur species, named Tameryraptor markgrafi, was discovered based on archive photographs of the dinosaur’s skeleton from before 1944. Its original skeleton was described in 1914 after it was excavated in the Bahariya Oasis in Egypt and then stored together with other Egyptian dinosaur fossils in the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology in Munich.
At the time, paleontologist Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach (1871-1952) assigned the fossil to the genus Carcharodontosaurus, meaning shark-toothed lizard. Measuring about 10 metres long, it is one of the largest known land-based carnivores ever to have roamed the Earth – comparable in size to the slightly younger Tyrannosaurus rex from North America.
However, a large part of the dinosaur fossil collection in Munich, including those from Egypt, fell victim to bombing during the Second World War. The only remnants of this 10-metre giant were Dr Stromer’s notes, illustrations of its bones, and some photos of the original skeletons.
Archived pictures show the original skeleton from Egypt, including parts of the dinosaur’s skull, spine and hind limbs before its destruction. “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,” said Maximilian Kellermann, the study’s first author.
