Lost in Plain Sight: How a 1924 Isle of Wight Fossil Became Europe's First Megaraptor
For a century, paleontologists knew that tyrannosaurs, spinosaurs, and dromaeosaurs roamed ancient Europe during the Early Cretaceous period (some 120 million years ago). However, one major lineage of hyper-agile, long-clawed apex predators seemed entirely absent from the European continent: the megaraptorans. That absence ended on October 14, 2026, when the Natural History Museum in London announced the formal description of Invictibellatrix amberina.
The fossilized skull fragment—specifically the rear braincase—was originally collected along the south-western coast of the Isle of Wight in 1924 by amateur paleontologist Reginald Walter Hooley. Following Hooley's death, the specimen entered the museum's vast archival holdings of over 1,000 fossils, where it sat unstudied for decades. When researchers finally subjected the small bone fragment to high-resolution computed tomography (CT scanning), 3D computational reconstructions revealed an oval spinal cord aperture and an unusual hourglass-shaped crest matching South American and Asian megaraptorans—confirming Europe's first known megaraptor.