Torvosaurus Rex?

This is the standard restoration of Torvosaurus, found in the Midwest of the US, it was a 30 to 40 foot long theropod. Unlike Allosaurus, this guy had a big head with larger teeth. Sort of like an early version of T.rex, it hunted the large sauropods like Diplodocus and Camerasaurus. Being so large Allosaurus was it's only real competition.









This is the skeleton of Torvosaurus gotten from the web, I can't remember the site, sorry about that, but it might have been 2 Guys Fossils. Notice the long head an big teeth.












Now this summer a new specimen was found in Europe, it was claimed to also be a a Torvosaurus since at this time Pangea was still together (all the continents were one smushed together land mass) so dinosaurs from N. America could go any were. Cool. But the thing is if you look at this restoration draw from the new skull presented, you'll notice the skulls are pretty different.









Notice how short the new skull (below) is, notice the bosses and nasal ridge are different from the N. American specimen. It actually looks like a new species. But here's the kicker, the new skull is based off of a fragmented partial skull consisting mainly of the maxilla. The part behind the nasal opening and in front of the eye. If you compare the two skulls the part is pretty much the same, so why is the rest of the skull so different?













It looks to me like they were a little to influenced by Tyrannosaurus rex (shown below.) It might just be an accident but the new skull restoration looks an awful lot like Sue. Maybe they wanted to crown a new king in Europe were the fossil record is spotty at best.

That's all for now, a new Abelisaur, a new Dromeosaur and another Spinosaurus later:)

Best,

Brett