Apparently, four bones discovered on the Isle of Wight belong to a species of theropod dinosaur unknown to science . The new species appears to be a relative of the world famous Tyrannosaurus rex and was around 4 meters long.
The famous fossil hunter Robin Ward was on a family vacation when he found one of the mysterious remains.
"The joy of finding the bones we discovered was absolutely fantastic," Ward said. "I thought they were special, so I took them when we visited the Dinosaur Isle Museum. They immediately knew they were rare and asked if we could donate them to the museum so they would be well researched."
This find was in addition to three other fossils that, upon close inspection at the University of Southampton, the researchers realized they were looking at an entirely new genus of dinosaur.
"We were surprised at how hollow this animal was, it's riddled with air spaces," said Chris Barker, a doctoral student at the university. "Parts of his skeleton must have been quite delicate."
Vectaerovenator inopinatusm , as the new species (meaning "unexpected hunter full of air") has been christened, joins T. rex and modern birds in a group known as theropods and roamed the Earth 115 million years ago.
Reference: Chris Barker et al. 2020. A highly pneumatic 'mid Cretaceous' theropod from the British Lower Greensand. Papers in Palaeontology
