Spinosaurus Ate Sharks and Huge Fish

Posted on September 12, 2014

Paleontologists have discovered fossils of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, a huge Cretaceous-era predator in the Sahara desert. The researchers say it is the first semiaquatic dinosaur to be discovered. Spinosaurus consumed sharks and large fish it captured using its curved, blade-like claws and giant slanted teeth.

Spinosaurus is also the largest largest known predatory dinosaur to roam the Earth. It was 15 meters long (50 feet), making it longer than the biggest Tyrannosaurus rex specimen. Spinosaurus both lived and hunted in the water. The fossils were discovered in the Kem Kem beds, desert cliffs in the Sahara that was once a large river system.

An interesting feature on Spinosaurus was an enormous sail-like feature on its back. The sail was 2 meters (7 feet long). It also had a crocodile like snout. Some of the features that let scientists know the creature was semiaquatic include small nostrils located in the back of its skull and neurovascular openings at the end of its snout. It also had long-boned feet with flat claws indicating its feet may have been webbed like some shorebirds.

As BBC News reports the very first fossils of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus were discovered 100 years ago, but were destroyed when a bomb hit a Munich museum during World War II. The international research team that discovered the new Spinosaurus fossils was led by Nizar Ibrahim from the University of Chicago. The team of paleontologists also included Paul Sereno from the University of Chicago; Cristiano Dal Sasso and Simone Maganuco from the Natural History Museum in Milan, Italy; and Samir Zouhri from the Université Hassan II Casablanca in Morocco. Ibrahim and Sereno are pictured above with Spinosaurus.

Ibrahim says in a statement, "Working on this animal was like studying an alien from outer space; it's unlike any other dinosaur I have ever seen."

Dal Sasso adds, "In the last two decades, several finds demonstrated that certain dinosaurs gave origins to birds. Spinosaurus represents an equally bizarre evolutionary process, revealing that predatory dinosaurs adapted to a semiaquatic life and invaded river systems in Cretaceous North Africa."

Spinosaurus covers the latest issue of National Geographic. NOVA will air a special about the dinosaur on Nov. 5th called Bigger Than T.rex. Take a look:

A research paper on Spinosaurus was published here in Science magazine.

DINOSAURS