Scientists in Portugal have identified what is now thought to be Europe’s largest predator as fossilised remains including bones, eggs and even embryos, have been uncovered from a cliff at Praia da Vermelha north of Lisbon.
The 10 metre animal, Torvosaurus Gurneyi, was a two-legged carnivore with blade-like teeth 10 centimetres in length and lived in the Jurassic period around 150 million years ago.
This ferocious equipped ten ton beast would have been at the top of the food chain in what was then a tropical environment in the Iberian area.
The fossilised remains of the creature’s jaw have enabled scientists to make a positive identification confiorming the creature is distinct from a close cousin found in North America.
Christophe Hencrickx, a palaeontologist at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa said: "We have a very well preserved tooth of more than ten centimetres in size. It definitely belongs to a carnivorous animal. Most likely a predator, and a predator that fed on large prey like herbivorous dinosaurs."
Torvosaurus Gurneyi and other dinosaurs found in Spain and Portugal have close relatives in the United States as the two areas are thought then to have been linked.
