Mega-carnivore dinosaur roamed in Africa

The new species, Kayentapus ambrokholohali, is a relative of Tyrannosaurus rex and was identified by its footprints, which are nearly two feet (23 inches) long. Dinosaurs are recorded as only first appearing on Earth around 230 million years ago, so the new find shocked researchers as it shows they grew big very quickly. 

Researchers led by Dr Fabien Knoll from the University of Manchester estimated the carnivorous dinosaur would have been around 30 feet long and 10 feet tall. It belongs to a new species that has been named Kayentapus ambrokholohali and is part of the group of dinosaurs called ‘megatheropods’. They include the giant two-legged carnivorous dinosaurs such as the iconic Tyrannosaurus rex which fossil evidence shows was around 39 feet long. 

It’s the first evidence a huge carnivorous dinosaur lived in South Africa more than 100 million years before T Rex first appeared on the planet. Dr Knoll said: ‘The latest discovery is very exciting and sheds new light on the kind of carnivore that roamed what is now southern Africa. ‘That’s because it is the first evidence of an extremely large meat-eating animal roaming a landscape otherwise dominated by a variety of herbivorous, omnivorous and much smaller carnivorous dinosaurs. 

It really would have been top of the food chain.’ On average therapod dinosaurs in the Early Jurassic epoch were thought to be around 3 to 16 feet in body length.