Torvosaurus was the T. rex of Europe

It is often difficult to say what kind of animal a fossil belongs to, but this vertebra is so large that it can only come from one animal group—the dinosaurs.

And not just any dinosaur Mateus is after. Previous fossil discoveries revealed that one of the world’s largest land predators reigned here on the coast of Portugal.

The coastal cliffs were a river delta

Dinosaurs invaded the world in earnest during the Jurassic period, about 201 to 145 million years ago. At the time, the Lorraine Formation was a large river delta swarming with dinosaurs. The climate was mild and warm, and coniferous forests and giant ferns dominated the area.

Along the rivers and streams, the wet sand and mud ensured that the bones and footprints of a great number of species were preserved for posterity. Therefore, today the Lourinhã Formation is one of the best places in Europe to search for fossils.

A large number of dinosaurs from the younger Jurassic period have been found in the area, including Miragaia, a herbivorous stegosaur with plates on its back and an unusually long neck: the long-necked sauropod Dinheirosaurus lourinhanensis, named after the town of Lourinhã and perhaps the most famous carnivore of the Jurassic period. Allosaurus.

But even though it was barely nine meters long and weighed about two and a half tons, Allosaurus wasn’t the largest predator in the area.

Bone patterns appear

Step by step, stone by stone, the researchers are approaching the place where Octavio Mateus found the vertebra. The road is steep and winding, but the researchers jump from rock to rock with ease.

When they stepped out on the edge of a rock, they could clearly see the bulging vertebrae of the field stone. At first the fossil looks like a black mass, but upon closer examination a pattern of thousands of lines is visible. The lines were formed from the fibers that make up the bones.

Octávio Mateus and Micael Martinho begin the work of separating the bone piece from the stone. Although they brought in modern tools in the form of a battery powered diamond saw and air drill, this type of field work still involved a lot of manual labor.

Using a hammer and chisel, small bits of rock are methodically chipped away around the fossil.

However, it is not certain that paleontologists can say which dinosaur the vertebrae belonged to. This identification depends on whether species-specific details can be indicated, which only become apparent when the fossil is examined later in the laboratory.

But Mateus and Martinho have an educated guess. The vertebra may belong to the massive Torvosaurus–a carnivore with a yawn that almost rivaled the king of the dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex.

Giant fought on several continents

Torvosaurus gurneyi is the largest carnivore that has ever set foot on the European continent. The giant appeared in the late Jurassic period and belonged to the megalosaurid family – a group of carnivorous dinosaurs that lived in Europe, North America, South America and Africa.

The first fossil was found in the United States and in the late 1970s the dinosaur was named. At first, paleontologists thought Torvosaurus came from North America, but when fossils turned up in Portugal, that theory was challenged.

For years, scientists believed that part of the jaw found in the Lourinhã Formation in 2006 belonged to a North American species called Torvosaurus tanneri, but a research team that included Octávio Mateus determined after careful analysis in 2013 that the skull bones had distinctive features that distinguished them from North American skulls. .

And when one of the oldest fossils of another unidentified member of the genus Torvosaurus turned up in Germany in 2020, the image that the dinosaur was a European species was reinforced.

Large predators play a huge role

For two days, paleontologists worked at the site where Octavio Mateus found the vertebra. Meanwhile, other fossils are turning up—including something resembling a rib. The goal is to free all the bones, but at the moment it is impossible to tell which dinosaur they belong to. One thing things are: the size reveals that they are too small to come from Torvosaurus.

Torvosaurus fossil finds have been relatively rare in Portugal since researchers in 2006 found part of a jaw. So they still know very little about the top predators of the Jurassic period, which makes each new fossil find an added value.

“Apex predators play a major role in the food chain, and knowledge about them contributes to understanding the food chain as a whole,” explains Octavio Mateus.

Finding additional Torvosaurus fossils may also help scientists understand where the species originated and how it spread.

And this happens on the third day.

At the breakfast meeting, when the fieldwork agenda for the day is being decided, Octavio tells us that there is a very promising discovery that he would like to look at closely. The discovery was made in an area of ​​the Lourinhã Formation that has not yet been explored and appears to be part of a tooth.

Size reveals that it can only come from an animal.

The monster measured eleven meters long

Torvosaurus fossils found so far, including part of the upper jaw, reveal that the carnivore hunted large prey – perhaps even long-necked sauropods, which also lived in the area around Lourinhã.

Torvosaurus could reach eleven meters in length and weigh between four and five tons. It can be compared to Tyrannosaurus rex which measured about twelve meters and weighed about nine tons. But while similar in length and appearance to a T. rex, Torvosaurus didn’t have the bite strength of a Cretaceous ruler.

Torvosaurus’ teeth resembled meat knives and cut through muscle with ease, but they were relatively narrow and not as strong as those of T. rex, whose tooth root was nearly as long as the tooth itself. T. rex’s teeth were also significantly stronger, meaning it could crush anything in its path.

However, the lack of bone-crushing properties does not make Torvosaurus inferior. However, it was equipped with the most powerful bite of the Jurassic period, and its size was all that was needed to terrorize the region’s herbivores for millions of years.

The rectangle is cut off

After the breakfast meeting, the search party climbs out into the hot sun to the spot where the tooth piece was found. Octavio Mateus points to something grayish-brown and oval, protruding half a centimeter from a rock. knows instantly. It is the root of the tooth.

At its widest point, the root of the tooth measures approximately 2 cm. The surface is polished and given a smooth texture, preferably almost smooth.

Like most predatory dinosaurs, Torvosaurus acquired new teeth at regular intervals, as it often broke them during violent fights. Therefore, spotting does not necessarily mean that the rest of the animal is nearby.

The group gets to work and with drills and diamond hammers they methodically expose a rectangle of stone around the root of the tooth.

Using small chisels, they then carefully make their way close to the fossil.

Fragments of rock fly around, until a cracking sound reveals that the oblong rock that encased Torvosaurus’ tooth for about 150 million years has now been freed from the rock.

Scientists give out high fives. Mission completed.

A tooth root like this often has limited value, as it tells us little about how the owner lived. But this does not apply to this score. Subsequent analyzes showed that Torvosaurus gurneyi dominated Portugal two to three million years earlier than scientists had previously thought.

Thus the T. rex in Europe gained more years on the throne.