Beneath layers of ancient rock that haven’t seen daylight in hundreds of millions of years, paleontologists have discovered something extraordinary. This new dinosaur discovery is a sub-species of the Spinosaurus called the ‘scimitar-crested’ Spinosaurus. The fossil remains were found in the Sarah desert in a part of Niger. The journey to Niger started in the 1950s where it was said where a fossilized tooth was found. Now scientists haven’t been back to the site in 70 years… and now they have found gold.
Paul Sereno, a professor at the University of Chicago, led a team of young scholars to the Sahara. The team cleaned and used a CT scanner to create a digital reconstruction of the skull. Using that model Serno collaborated with a paleoarist, Dani Navarro, to make a dynamic image of the creature. The image showed flesh reconstructions which added muscle skin over the skeleton. From there, the image was ready to be published as a new discovery. My friend and a Marine Science student, Gianna Linarducci, stated “I didn’t even know they could do that. I am interested in animals and science, and this is mind blowing.”
The scimitar-crested Spinosaurus is a extremely impressive animal. It would have competed with the T-rex in size. The size was so large, and unexpected, scientists didn’t recognize the pieces of the jaw correctly. There is a crest present on the animals’ back, which is believed to be sheathed in keratin. Gianna commented on the discovery of the crest, “it really makes you wonder what could have been possible back then, and there are somethings we could never know.” Another striking feature is the teeth. They are interdigitating which made a deadly trap for slippery fish. Not only is the anatomy is the new Spinosaurus remarkable, it is also the location it was found. Previously, other species of Spinosaurus have been found in coastal deposits near the shoreline; these remains were found 500-1000 km from water. This allowed Seno to conclude the animal, “problem wading on its sturdy legs into two meters of water but probably spent most of its time stalking shallower traps for the many large fish of the day.”
This breakthrough is more than just a identification of new sub-species; it is a reminder that prehistoric life is still evolving. “I am excited to see what they can do next. This just makes me wait,” Gianna said. From CT scanning to digital reconstruction, the new science is uncovering unexpected things. This gives the science world a hope that other discoveries with be made with remarkable precisions. As long as there are still unexplored regions and unanswered questions, the age of discovery is far from over.
