Named the “White Rock Spinosaurid”, the new dinosaur is “one of the largest terrestrial hunters in Europe”.
Reconstruction of the life of the spinosaurid of the White Rock. Image credit: Anthony Hutchings.
The White Rock spinosaurus lived during the early Cretaceous period, about 125 million years ago.
It was over 10 m (33 ft) long and belonged to the Spinosauridae, a family of two-legged, crocodile-faced predatory dinosaurs.
“This was a huge animal, over 10 m long and probably several tons in weight,” said Dr. Chris Barker, Ph.D. student at the University of Southampton.
“Judging by some of its dimensions, it appears to represent one of the largest predatory dinosaurs ever found in Europe, perhaps even the largest known to date.”
“It’s a shame it’s only known from a small amount of material, but these are enough to prove he was an immense creature.”
The fossilized remains of the White Rock spinosaurid – huge pelvic and tail vertebrae – were recovered from the Vectis Formation on the Isle of Wight, England.
“Most of these amazing fossils were found by Nick Chase, one of Britain’s most skilled dinosaur hunters,” said Jeremy Lockwood, Ph.D. studying at the University of Portsmouth and the Museum of Natural History in London.
“I was looking for remains of this dinosaur with Nick and I found a piece of pelvis with boring tunnels, each the size of my index finger.”
“We believe they were caused by larvae eating the bones of a scavenger beetle. It’s an interesting thought that this giant killer has become a meal for a lot of insects.”
Position of the best preserved bones of the White Rock spinosaurid. Image credit: Chris Barker and Dan Folkes.
“Unusually, this specimen was eroded from the Vectis Formation, which is notoriously poor in dinosaur fossils,” said Dr. Neil Gostling, a paleobiologist at the University of Southampton.
“It is likely to be the youngest known spinosaur material in the UK to date.”
According to the team, the Vectis Formation preserves the beginning of a period of sea level rise, where the ‘White Rock’ spinosaur chased the waters of the lagoon and the sands in search of food.
“Because it’s only known in fragments at the moment, we haven’t given it a formal scientific name,” said Dr. Darren Naish, a paleontologist at the University of Southampton.
“We expect additional debris to appear over time.”
“This new animal reinforces our previous argument that spinosaurid dinosaurs originated and diversified in Western Europe before spreading further.”
The team document appears today in PeerJ magazine.
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Chris Barker et al. 2022. A European giant: a large spinosaurid (Dinosaur: Theropoda) from the Vectis Formation (Wealden Group, early Cretaceous). PeerJ, in press;