Fossils of a 125-million-year-old, 10-meter-long, crocodile-headed carnivorous dinosaur, likely the largest predator to ever live in Europe, have been discovered on the British Isle of Wight – reveals a study published on Thursday (9) .
Paleontology owes this precious discovery to a local collector, the British Nick Chase, who spent his life walking the beaches of this island in the south of England, one of the richest places in Europe for dinosaur fossils.
From the few bones they unearthed (mostly cervical, caudal and sacral vertebrae), the University of Southampton researchers were able to identify the animal, a bipedal spinosaurus. This predator lived in the Lower Cretaceous, between 145 million and 100 million years ago.
“It was a gigantic animal, over 10 meters long. In view of some of its dimensions, it probably represents the largest predator ever discovered in Europe,” says Chris Barker, a paleontology researcher who led the study published in the journal Peer J.
Although few bones of the individual have been unearthed so far, “the numbers don’t lie: it is larger than the largest specimen ever found in Europe,” he told AFP.
This mighty carnivore appears to be “even bigger” than another predatory dinosaur discovered in Portugal in 2017, confirmed Thomas Richard Holtz, a paleontologist at the University of Maryland in the US who was not involved in the study.
“Like the egrets”
Comparing sizes remains difficult, however, in this extinct world, recalls Matt Lamanna, a dinosaur expert at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pennsylvania.
And the biggest spinosaur “probably wasn’t as massive” as the famous tyrannosaurus rexor the Giganotosaurus.
“White Rock Spinosaurus” (named after the spot where its bones were found) is the name scientists hope to give a new species, which roamed the area around 125 million years ago.
It is believed to be the youngest specimen in the family of spinosaurs found in Britain, including the baryonyxone of the protagonists of the “Jurassic Park” film series.
This family is recognizable by its elongated crocodile-like head, as opposed to the square skull of the T-rex. Some theories relate this morphology to their hunting form, both on land and in water.
“They were a bit like storks and herons, splashing around and catching fish on the surface,” says Chris Barker.
The fossils were discovered on the island’s southwest coast, in a lagoon-type geological formation that revealed a hitherto unknown historical stratum.
“This helps us to represent the living conditions of these animals at that time”, adds the researcher.
On this island, the team of researchers has already discovered two new species of Spinosaurus, including the Ceratosuchops inferodynicknamed “Hell’s Crane”.
The predator’s discovery “strengthens our argument that this dinosaur family originated in Western Europe and diversified there, before spreading elsewhere” on the planet, added study co-author Darren Naish.
“Most of these extraordinary fossils were found by Nick Chase, one of the most skilled dinosaur hunters, who died shortly before the Covid-19 epidemic,” said Jeremy Lockwood of the University of Porthmouth, also a co-author of the study.
The collector always donated his finds to museums, according to paleontologists.
