Researchers estimated that Invictibellatrix measured about five metres long and stood just over a metre and a half tall, with a body potentially covered in filament-like feathers and fearsome claws measuring between 10 and 20 centimetres.
As one of the smaller members of the megaraptoran family, it likely preyed upon mammals, small reptiles and juvenile dinosaurs, occupying an ecological niche comparable to that of a modern hyena.
Unlike Tyrannosaurus rex, which relied on its massive skull, enormous teeth, and devastating bite force to dispatch prey while possessing famously feeble arms, megaraptorans hunted in an entirely different way.
Lead author and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Leeds, Cassius Morrison, said: “Megaraptorans are very unique among theropods because they have relatively small and slender heads but had long and strong arms with massive hand claws as well as very lightly built skeletons.”