paleontologists from the university of Southampton are convinced : the four bones found at Shanklin (isle of Wight) in 2019 belong to a new species of dinosaur. The imposing animal, which measured up to 4 meters long, lived during the Cretaceous period, there are 115 million years, explain to our colleagues from the BBC, Wednesday 12 August 2020. Named Vectaerovenator inopinatus by scientists, this dinosaur would be a close relative of the tyrannosaurus and modern birds.
The fossils were unearthed during three discoveries distinct in 2019 and given to the museum Dinosaur Isle to close, at Sandown, where they are exposed. Robin Ward, a hunter of fossils of Stratford-upon-Avon, visited the isle of Wight with his family when they fell on a bone, literally. James Lockyer, of Spalding (Lincolnshire), was also visiting the island when he found another bone. Finally, Paul Farrell has made the third and final discovery date. "I was walking along the beach hitting on stones when I stumbled on what looked like a dinosaur bones ", he explains to the BBC.
The carcass was washed away by the sea
Chris Barker, who led the study from the university of Southampton, has been struck by the presence of numerous air cavities in the body of the animal, a feature that has led researchers to agree that this was a new species. According to Barker, the Vectaerovenator inopinatus would have lived in an area just north of the place where his remains were found, the carcass had been washed away in the shallow sea at this place. The university-based discoveries are expected to be published in the journal Papers in Palaeontology, and co-written by those who have discovered the fossil.
