Large UK "velociraptorine teeth"

["Dino Guy Ralph" <ralph.miller@alumni.usc.edu>]

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3659783.stm for a BBC article
about the discovery of  seven 125 million year old dromaeosaur teeth that
were large enough that they may have belonged to a  creature in the
_Utahraptor_ size range.  The article includes a nice photo of one of the
teeth, but no measurements are given.

Unfortunately, the teeth were found in the Wessex Formation from the
southwest of the Isle of Wight, where, according to the article, it is
doubtful that any substantial amount of dinosaur skeletal material will ever
be found.

If this large theropod was indeed a dromaeosaur, and if it was a
contemporary of Liaoning dromaeosaurs, then this suggests (to me) that
dromaeosaurs must have originated much earlier than 125 million years ago to
have produced such diversity.

--------
"Dino Guy" Ralph W. Miller III
Docent at the California Academy of Sciences
proud member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology