Torvosaurus gurneyi was the largest predator to ever walk the continent of Europe. This giant hunter was 33 feet long, weighed over four tons, and a skull, 45 inches long, and sported razor-sharp four-inch teeth. It prowled the Iberian Peninsula, 150 million years ago.
Christophe Hendricks of the New University of Lisbon and paleontologist Octavio Mateus discovered a secret about previously-known dinosaur fossils, discovered in Portugal. The fossils come from the Lourinha Formation, located north of Lisbon. This feature displays a rich tapestry of dinosaur fossils.
Remains of these fearsome predators have been recorded previously by archeologists, in 2003. However, these finds were misclassified as belonging to Torvosaurus tanneri. That species roamed North America.
Analysis of the Portuguese fossils revelead they differed from tanneri in several significant ways. For one, the gurneyi fossils showed fewer teeth than the 11 possessed by the North American species.
"T. gurneyi is the largest theropod from the Lourinhã Formation of Portugal and the largest land predator discovered in Europe hitherto. This taxon supports the mechanism of [distinct species forming through geographical barriers] that occurred in the Iberian Meseta during the Late Jurassic when the proto-Atlantic was already well formed," researchers wrote in the article, announcing the conclusions of their study.
Other species of dinosaur from the same period were larger than this newly-recognized variety of animal. Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and the infamous Tyrannosaurus rex were all larger than Torvosaurus gurneyi. Still, the Portuguese predator was a mighty terror in its time.
"At the end of the day, those predatory dinosaurs of the Jurassic were not as big as those in the Cretaceous. The very largest dinosaurs lived in the Cretaceous period," Luis Chiappe, of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, told the press. He was not involved in the recent study.
Not so ferocious is James Gurney, known for writing Dinotopia, a series of illustrated books about the once-mighty creatures. The story books take place in a land where humans co-exist with intelligent, communicative dinosaurs. Together, the two species form a cohesive society. The book was first released in 1992.
Since that time, Dinotopia has sold over two million copies in 30 countries. In honor of his achievements, researchers named the new dinosaur after the author.
Fossils of the dinosaur recovered so far include teeth, some vertebrae from tails and an upper jawbone. An additional femur and tibia also may belong to gurneyi, as well.
Temperatures in that area averaged 90 degrees, leading to a great diversity of both plant and animal life.
