Forgotten Dinosaur Skull Rewrites Carnivore History

A forgotten dinosaur skull stored for decades in a museum drawer has been identified as a new species of carnivorous dinosaur that lived approximately 230 million years ago, during the late Triassic period. The discovery, led by researchers at Virginia Tech, reveals that Ptychotherates bucculentus predates Tyrannosaurus rex by more than 160 million years—making it roughly three times older than the iconic Cretaceous predator.

The fossil was originally unearthed in 1982 at Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico by a team from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. For years, the crushed and distorted skull remained unstudied due to its poor condition. It was described by Simba Srivastava, a Virginia Tech undergraduate geosciences major who led the reconstruction effort, as a “uniquely sucky specimen” so damaged that it resembled nothing usable.

Despite its condition, Srivastava spent two years carefully reconstructing the fossil using digital techniques. His work, published in Papers in Palaeontology, revealed key anatomical features that placed Ptychotherates bucculentus as a late-surviving member of the Herrerasauridae family—a group of early carnivorous dinosaurs previously thought to have vanished much earlier in the Triassic.

The name Ptychotherates bucculentus translates to “folded hunter with full cheeks,” referencing both the skull’s distorted structure and inferred musculature. The discovery suggests that some dinosaur groups experimented with predatory traits long before the rise of later giants like Tyrannosaurus rex, and that certain lineages may have persisted closer to the end-Triassic extinction than previously believed.

According to the research team, this finding reshapes understanding of dinosaur evolution just before the Jurassic period began. It indicates that dinosaurs did not simply rise as other life forms vanished, but that some early dinosaur lineages were themselves wiped out during the end-Triassic extinction event.

Sterling Nesbitt and Michelle Stocker, geobiologists at Virginia Tech, brought Srivastava onto the project as a first-year student. Nesbitt stated that the goal was to allow undergraduate researchers to experience the full paleontological research process, adding that “Simba grabbed the project by the reins.”

The fossil’s prolonged storage in a museum drawer highlights how significant discoveries can remain overlooked for years, particularly when specimens are fragmented or poorly preserved. Its eventual identification underscores the value of re-examining overlooked collections with modern analytical techniques.