Today, the land near Ban Saphan Hin in central Thailand is dusted with thin reddish soil where local farmers plant corn and tapioca. But more than 113 million years ago, this region hosted ancient floodplains that were terrorized by a fearsome dinosaur with shark-like teeth.

Described today in the journal PLOS One, the newfound predator—called Siamraptor suwati—is the most complete dinosaur of its type and age ever found in Southeast Asia. The bones of the 25-foot beast add to a string of major dinosaur finds from the region, and they reveal new insight into how a major group of predatory dinosaurs spread across the ancient world.

“It's one of the most important Thai dinosaurs ever found,” Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist