Submitted by Waspie Dwarf: Fossils of a massive dinosaur unearthed a decade ago in the Republic of Niger, Africa, have been recognised as belonging to a new species. Scientists say Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis was one of the largest meat-eaters that ever lived, rivalling T. rex in size and ferocity. The 95-million-year-old fossils have been kept in a Chicago laboratory for several years, awaiting classification. A student stumbled on the remains and realised they were important. "It really is a fascinating animal - it was one of the largest meat eaters that lived on the planet," said Steve Brusatte, now an MSc student at the University of Bristol. "It's a new species - it is something totally different." Strange and scary: The dinosaur had a skull about 1.75m long housing huge jaws armed with teeth the size of bananas. It was part of a "very weird ecosystem" of huge bipedal carnivorous dinosaurs that inhabited the Saharan Cretaceous landscape. "It was a 13m long predator that still had to watch its own back because something bigger was out there - an animal called Spinosaurus," Brusatte told BBC News. Also known as the spine lizard because of its distinctive fin-like spines, Spinosaurus grew to 18m long, and lived alongside a third mighty carnivore - the 9m high Abelisaurid theropod. "It was a very strange, very scary community at that time," he added. Serendipity: The fossils were discovered in Niger in 1997 on an expedition led by the prominent fossil hunter Paul Sereno from the University of Chicago.

The jawbone of a closely related species has been found Brusatte - who was 13 at the time - did not take part in the expedition but came across the remains while studying in Chicago. While cataloguing the skull and neck fossils, he noticed that they showed a number of differences from similar Carcharodontosaurus specimens found in Morocco.

View: Full Article | Source: BBC News

Not much of a big deal, and a stretch to call it a "new species". A more apt description is that it is simply a subspecies of the already well known Carchy, whose teeth you can buy every day on ebay.

people have been finding new types of dinosaurs for years and are still being completly stupid about it in my opinion,
they may as well have called it i-have-a-name-that-you-will-never-remember-asaurus.. seriously why make stupid names for them, if they were simple it would be a whole lot easier to remember.

though i would find it funny to hear some dino-ologists (<new word, i think ) talking about a whole lot of dinosaur names. the conversation would never end

They have long ridiculose names coz theyre translated in Greek or Latin
Tyrannosaurus Rex - Tyrant Reptile King
Velociraptor - Knife/Dagger Claw
Although I can not remember the exact translations lol

remind me never to learn latin if all their translated words have to be that long

why does it matter if they can be translated to greek or latin in it or not, if i found a new dinosaur fossil i would call it "bill" - now how easy is it to remember that lol

Unveiled, eh?

TeraLink Was Here!

I believe that "Velociraptor" comes from "Fast-moving bird of prey".

Edit: I just noticed that "Velociraptor" conveyed as much meaning in one Latin word as "Fast-moving bird of prey" conveyed in five English words. Maybe that shows the value in naming ancient creatures with Latin names.

Weird. In most books ive read on dinos usually an animal with 'Raptor' on its name had 'Claw' in its translated name. Ahwell, im not paleontologist... yet i hope