It is a 65 to 75 million-year-old fossil of a dinosaur called Majungatholus atopus, a distant cousin of the fearsome Tyrannosaurus Rex. Once it was the dominant predator on the island of Madagascar where it was dug up.

Several specimens have been recovered, including a nearly complete and very well preserved skull.

"This is the most terrific find I have been associated with in more than 25 years of field work," said David Krause of the State University of New York.

Scott Sampson of the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine has also seen the fossil skull and adds: "This extraordinary skull ranks among the best known for any dinosaur.

"We hit the paleontological jackpot."

The predator, 30ft long, was buried by a flood not long after its death and protected from decay and scavenging.