Dinosaur news: The Largest Terrestrial Predator from Europe

In the New PLoS ONE journal, Christophe Hendrickx & Octávio Mateus published the discovery of a giant European theropod (the fossil maxilla) from the Lourinhã Formation (Kimmeridgian-Tithonian) of Central West Portugal. The Formation " is well known for its diversified dinosaur fauna similar to that of the Morrison Formation of North America; both areas share dinosaur taxa including the top predator Torvosaurus, reported in Portugal."

Here is my (really quick) sketch of how the dinosaur may looked like in life:

Of course, Triceratops in my logo is not here for the scale :-) 

Free paper: Torvosaurus gurneyi n. sp., the Largest Terrestrial Predator from Europe, and a Proposed Terminology of the Maxilla Anatomy in Nonavian Theropods

A Quaternary digression

 

A  skeleton of a small Quaternary horse in a breccia in the midst of the Cretaceous rocks

It is interesting that many Cretaceous limestone sediments have gaps which are filled in by the Quaternary breccia, often containing jumbled bones. Thus the name: the bone breccias. Here is one from the Pula "dinosaur track sites" containing the bones of a small horse (photo credit: B.Krzic):

 The close up: Outlined with red are front legs hooves (heart shape) and the skull.

 

The age of these "breccia horses" of the genus Equus is late Villafranchian to ? Holsteinian (possibly even late Pleistocene).

 

A paper:

Fossil horses (Mammalia, Equidae) from the bone breccias of Croatia, northern Balcan

Paläontologische Zeitschrift
December 1992, Volume 66, Issue 3-4, pp 369-385
Mirko Malez, Ann Forsten,Jadranka Lenardic