Bizarre Spinosaurus makes history as first known swimming dinosaur
A newfound fossil tail from this giant predator stretches our understanding of how—and where—dinosaurs lived.
Source: National Geographic
Date: 29 April, 2020
CASABLANCA, MOROCCOAt the end of a dim hallway in Casablanca’s Université Hassan II, I’ve walked into a dusty room containing a remarkable set of fossils—bones that raise foundational questions about Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, one of the weirdest dinosaurs ever discovered.
Longer than an adult Tyrannosaurus rex, the 50-foot-long, seven-ton predator had a large sail on its back and an elongated snout that resembled the maw of a crocodile, bristling with conical teeth. For decades, reconstructions of its bulky body have ended in a long, narrowing tail like the ones on its many theropod cousins.
The red-brown remains laid before me are altering that picture. These bones assemble into a mostly complete tail, the first yet found for Spinosaurus. It’s so large, five tables are required to support its full length, and to my shock, the appendage resembles a giant bony paddle.
Described today in the journal Nature, this tail is the most extreme aquatic adaptation ever seen in a large dinosaur. Its discovery in Morocco stretches our understanding of how one of Earth’s most dominant groups of land animals lived and thrived.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/...us-tail-found-confirms-dinosaur-was-swimming/
The full publication in Nature, can be found here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2190-3.epdf