CAIRO, June 8 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian research team has discovered a fossil of a carnivorous dinosaur living about 98 million years ago in Bahariya Oasis in the country's Western Desert, official news agency MENA reported Wednesday.
"The discovered fossil is similar to the famous Tyrannosaurus rex," MENA quoted President of Egypt's Mansoura University Ashraf Abdel Basset as saying.
The discovery was the result of joint efforts between Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center and scientists at the Ministry of Environment, according to Abdel Basset.
After several years of investigation, the research team said the fossil covered with a mix of solid iron and sand was a well-preserved tenth cervical vertebra of a medium-sized dinosaur of the Abelisauridae family.
Bahariya Oasis, about 290 km southwest of the capital Cairo, is famous for a large fossil site for dinosaurs named the River of Giants. ■