It is the oldest known fossil of the species found in Northeast Africa.
A carnivorous dinosaur fossil that lived about 98 million years ago was discovered by a team of researchers from Egypt in the western desert of the country.
The well-preserved neck vertebra, discovered during a mission in 2016 to the Bahariya oasis in the vast desert, belongs to an Abelisaurid, a species that lived during the Cretaceous period (about 145 to 66 million years ago), according to researchers.
An Egyptian team led by Hesham Sallam, associate professor at the Institute of Global Health and Human Ecology, has discovered the fossilized remains of a new kind of large-bodied, meat-eating dinosaur from a celebrated fossil site in the Bahariya Oasis.https: / /t.co/q2vN1whTDF pic.twitter.com/OAmCOuqXxi
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The species was more common in parts of Europe and on the modern continents of the Southern Hemisphere, such as Africa and South America, except on the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.
It is the first time the remains of the Abelisaurid, named after the Argentine Roberto Abel – who first discovered the remains of the species decades ago – have been found in Egypt. It is the oldest known fossil of the species in Northeast Africa.
In the early 20th century, fossils of other famous dinosaurs were discovered in the area, including Spinosaurus, but the specimens were destroyed during the bombing of Munich during World War II.
THE study was conducted by members of the Center for Vertebrate Paleontology at the University of Mansoura (MUVP), the Egyptian Environment Agency, and researchers from the United States. The results were published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
Hesham Sallam, founding director of the MUVP and a member of the research team, told ABC News that a meticulous operation was performed to remove iron and sand from the surface of the vertebrae.
“This is the first time we have discovered a dinosaur eating meat here in a century … groups from Pennsylvania have previously found herbivorous dinosaur fossils in the same area,” Sallam added.
“We have found other things, but we are not making further announcements for the time being,” he said.
