New dinosaur named after Dinotopia creator James Gurney

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A new species of dinosaur has been named after Dinotopia creator James Gurney. As Gurney explains on his blog:

Today a new dinosaur is being introduced to the world, and I'm thrilled and honored that that the paleontologists decided to name it after me. It's called Torvosaurus gurneyi. 

The dinosaur, which was discovered in Portugal, is one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs from the Jurassic and the largest land-predator discovered in Europe.

Lead author Christophe Hendrickx of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Museu of Lourinhã says, “With a skull of 115 cm, Torvosaurus gurneyi was...an active predator that hunted other large dinosaurs, as evidenced by blade shape teeth up to 10 cm."

Mr. Hendrickx says he chose the name because of a childhood fascination with the book that I wrote and illustrated called Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time.

Congratulations to Gurney! And this might be a good time to add that the 20th anniversary edition of the third book in the Dinotopia series, First Flight, comes out April 23. (Full disclosure: Gurney sent me an autographed copy of his fourth Dinotopia book, Journey to Chandara, back in 2007.)

You can read more about the discovery over at NBC News.