An ancient relative of Velociraptor is unearthed in Great Britain

Date:
December 21, 2021
Source:
University of Portsmouth
Summary:
A new bird-like dinosaur that used brute strength to overcome its
prey has been found by palaeontologists combing through fossils
found on the Isle of Wight, on the South Coast of Great Britain.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new bird-like dinosaur that used brute strength to overcome its prey
has been found by paleontologists combing through fossils found on the
Isle of Wight, on the South Coast of Great Britain.


==========================================================================
The new animal has been named Vectiraptor greeni after local collector
Mick Green who discovered its bones after they became washed from the
rocks on the island's south coast. It was an older, more heavily built, relative of the predator Velociraptor. The fearsome animal was about the
size of a wolf, about 3 metres (10 feet) long, from nose to tail, and
would have used huge slashing talons on its feet to dispatch its prey. Its finely serrated teeth were then used to bite off pieces of the kill.

The dinosaur would have prowled through the forests that covered the land
in the Early Cretaceous, 125 million years ago. It died and lay buried
until 2004, when storms and waves eroded away the rocks that had kept
its bones hidden. Yet another 20 years passed before scientists from
the Universities of Bath and Portsmouth studied the fossils and made
the surprising find that the bones represented a new species. Their
discovery is described this week in the journal Cretaceous Research.

Vectiraptor belonged to a group of dinosaurs called dromaeosaurs,
or raptors.

These bird-like dinosaurs were specialist hunters and, like their
modern-day avian relatives, were covered in long feathers. Their jaws
were full of blade- like, serrated teeth and they had huge scythe-shaped
claws on their feet, used to slash at their prey, causing it to rapidly
bleed to death.

Well-known members of the raptors include Velociraptor from Mongolia,
and Deinonychus, and the giant Utahraptor from the United States. A
smaller raptor has previously been described from the Isle of Wight
but Vectiraptor marks the first time a large raptor has been found in
England. Although only fragments of the skeleton have survived- a pair of vertebrae from the back, and part of the hips -- what is known suggests
a large, powerfully built animal.

"This was a large, and very heavily constructed animal," said Dr Nick
Longrich, who led the study from the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath. "The bones are thick-walled and massive. It clearly
didn't hunt small prey, but animals as large or larger than itself."
Although not the biggest predator in its environment -- top predators
included the allosaur Neovenator, spinosaurs like Baryonyx, and an early tyrannosaur called Eotyrannus -- Vectiraptor would have been a threat both
to smaller dinosaurs and juveniles of large dinosaurs. With strong arms
and talons, it may have climbed trees like modern leopards. The heavy
bones suggest an animal that relied less on speed and more on strength,
and perhaps ambushes, to tackle its prey.



========================================================================== "It's a tantalising hint at the diversity of dinosaurs in England at
this time," said Dr Longrich.

This is the first time a large raptor has been found in the UK. "There's
an extraordinary diversity of dinosaurs known in England in the
Cretaceous, and even after more than a century of study, we continue
to find new species," said Dr Longrich. "Although palaeontologists
have been studying these dinosaurs for a long time, it's hard going. We
have to wait for the sea cliffs to fall and expose bits of bone, or for
the waves to wash them out of the rocks. We've spent two centuries on
the Isle of Wight piecing together our picture of English dinosaurs."
Co-author Professor Dave Martill of the University of Portsmouth notes
that raptors closely related to Velociraptor have also been found in
Mongolia, suggesting that England may have lain along an important
dispersal route for dinosaurs. Professor Martill said, given the
similarity between North American and Mongolian dinosaur faunas in the
Early Cretaceous, it was only a matter of time before someone discovered
a raptor dinosaur in England.

A remarkable number of dinosaur species originate from this small island
off southern England. Ancient England was something of a crossroads
for dinosaurs.

At the time the continents were closer together, with some connected by
land bridges. Dinosaurs likely wandered in from North America and Asia,
or perhaps swam from Africa. Europe was a sort of crossroads linking
the continents.

A chance encounter Vectiraptor greeni was named after amateur
paleontologist Mick Green, who discovered the remains in in 2004 but
didn't appreciate the importance of his find until he was forced by
ill-health to stop collecting fossils in 2012. He then turned his
attention to prising the dinosaur bones free from the hard ironstone surrounding them.



==========================================================================
One day, chatting over a beer, he showed the fossils to Isle of Wight palaeontologist Megan Jacobs and Dr Longrich who puzzled over them, and
at first struggled to make sense of them, until they noticed tell-tale similarities to other raptors. Mr Green allowed the bones to be studied,
and they turned out to represent a new genus and species. The bones
have now been donated to the Dinosaur Isle Museum at Sandown on the Isle
of Wight.

"This dinosaur is incredibly exciting, adding to the huge diversity
of dinosaurs here on the Isle of Wight, and helping to build a bigger
picture of the Early Cretaceous world," said Megan Jacobs, a collaborator
on the project.

"This little dinosaur also serves as an excellent example of the
importance of amateur fossil collectors, and how working with them
can produce important scientific research, which would otherwise not
be possible." Without the dedication of Mick Green and others on the
island, she noted, this dinosaur would have been lost to the sea.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Portsmouth. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* The_ancient_relative_of_Velociraptor ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Nicholas R. Longrich, David M. Martill, Megan L. Jacobs. A new
dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Wessex Formation (Lower Cretaceous,
Barremian) of the Isle of Wight, and implications for European
palaeobiogeography. Cretaceous Research, 2021; 105123 DOI: 10.1016/
j.cretres.2021.105123 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211221102724.htm

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