A previously unknown dinosaur species, named Erwin Tamaryi, has been discovered from photographs of fossils destroyed during the Allied bombing of Munich in World War II. Researchers found its remains in an Egyptian archive, leading them to realize it was not classified as Carcharodontosaurus but instead a distinct predator of its own. The fossilized specimen, thought to date back millions of years, originally belonged to a German paleontologist named Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach, who documented its features in the 1930s. However, after the destruction of the Munich fossils collection during WWII, only partial records remained, prompting confusion among scientists. The new species’ name combines “Tamery,” an ancient Egyptian term, with Richard Markgraf, a German paleontologist who first excavated the fossil in 1914. This discovery underscores the importance of revisiting historical collections and highlights the diversity of dinosaurs from the Cretaceous era in North Africa.
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025/01/26/dinosaur-tameryraptor-bombing-fossil-discovery