"Millions of years before the Sahara became a desert, it was a vibrant ecosystem. Bordering the ancient Tethys Sea, which broke up the supercontinent Pangaea, the region was home to massive dinosaurs, including a newly discovered, terrifying predator that would have been as deadly on land as it was at sea. This daunting creature, Spinosaurus mirabilis, stood between 10 and 14 meters tall and was crowned by a huge bladelike crest."
"Its discovery, detailed in a paper published today in Science, came almost by chance: the new species' bones were found in a known fossil hotspot. But the region is so remote that no researcher had been there for decadesuntil Paul Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago, and his colleagues arrived in 2019. A local led the researchers to a site with some black fossils in the sandwhich turned out to be a treasure trove of fossils, including those from S. mirabilis."
Fossils in the Sahara reveal Spinosaurus mirabilis, a massive predator measuring about 10–14 meters with a pronounced bladelike crest. The bones emerged from a remote fossil hotspot during expeditions after decades without fieldwork, with key discoveries made in 2019 and 2022. Anatomical features indicate adaptations for both terrestrial and aquatic hunting, implying wading behavior through shallow waters to pursue prey similar to an oversized heron. The specimen lived along inland environments bordering the ancient Tethys Sea and expands understanding of spinosaurid evolution by showing inland populations capable of hunting in both land and shallow marine settings.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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