Fossil hunters on the Isle of Wight have discovered the remains of what could be the largest predatory dinosaur ever found in Europe.
Pieces of bone belonging to a massive spinosaur, a two-legged crocodile-faced beast that lived 125 million years ago, suggest that the terrestrial hunter measured more than 10 meters from snout to tail.
Researchers discovered vertebrae and parts of the pelvis and a limb bone in the rock eroded from a cliff that had fallen on the beach at Compton Bay, southwest of the Isle of Wight.
“From the bones we have, this animal may be the largest predatory dinosaur ever found in Europe,” said Dr. Neil Gostling, a paleobiologist at the University of Southampton. “It’s directly from Compton.”
While dinosaurs were terrestrial creatures, spinach is known to have spent a lot of time in or near water, and fish made up a substantial proportion of their diet. It is unclear whether they caught fish or searched it after washing their shores.
White Rock Spinosaurid Bone Fragments. Photo: PeerJ Life & Environment
Chris Barker, a doctoral student who led the study, said the animal was “huge”, although too little has yet been recovered from the dinosaur to determine whether or not it is a new species of dinosaur. ‘spinosaurus. “It’s a shame it’s only known from a small amount of material, but those are enough to prove he was an immense creature,” he said.
The discovery follows previous work on spinosaurs by the University of Southampton team, which reported the discovery of two new species in 2021.
The family of dinosaurs containing spinosaurs may have originated in Europe about 150 million years ago and has since become more widespread. Details of the remains, which are on display at the Dinosaur Isle Museum in Sandown, are published in PeerJ Life and Environment magazine.
Scientists have called the latest discovery the White Rock spinosaurid after the geological layer in which the bones were found. Most of the remains were discovered by Nick Chase, a British dinosaur hunter who died shortly before the Covid pandemic.
Darren Naish, a paleontologist and co-author of the study, said the new remains reinforced the team’s belief that spinosaurid dinosaurs originated and diversified in Western Europe before spreading further. “We expect additional debris to appear over time,” he said. “Because it’s only known in fragments at the moment, we haven’t given it a formal scientific name.”
Markings found on the bones, including the perforated tunnels in the pelvic bone piece, suggest that the creature became food for scavengers after he died. Another co-author, Jeremy Lockwood, a doctoral student at the University of Portsmouth and the Museum of Natural History, said the holes in the pelvic bone were the size of a finger and may have been caused by larvae. bone-eaters of a scavenger. beetle.
The team now hopes to prepare thin sections of the bones that can be examined with a microscope to learn more about the growth rate and potential age of the dinosaur.