Newfound Spinosaurus tail offers information about swimming dinosaurs

[FfFfFfFF 58,120]

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.

[...] These 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.

“This was basically a dinosaur trying to build a fish tail,” says National Geographic Emerging Explorer Nizar Ibrahim, the lead researcher examining the fossil.

Now, with evidence from the newly analyzed tail, there’s a strong case that Spinosaurus didn’t merely flirt with the shore but was capable of full-fledged aquatic movement. Collectively, the findings published today suggest the giant Spinosaurus spent plenty of time underwater, perhaps hunting prey like a massive crocodile. “This tail is unambiguous,” says team member Samir Zouhri, a paleontologist at the Université Hassan II. “This dinosaur was swimming.”

It was also argued that Spinosaurus had a slender torso, stubby hind limbs, a skull shaped like a fish-eating crocodile’s, and thick-walled bones similar to those in penguins and manatees—features that pointed to some kind of semiaquatic lifestyle.

 

 

Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/04/first-spinosaurus-tail-found-confirms-dinosaur-was-swimming/

[ShayCristoforo 10,607]

I've been playing so much Animal Crossing, I thought this was about Blathers and the museum fossils lol

But this is much better  

[sarahb 17,188]

[Regina George 59,387]

Imagine if they were still alive today.. The world would be so interesting and beautiful 

[Chromatislaps 34,854]

5 minutes ago, Regina George said:

Imagine if they were still alive today.. The world would be so interesting and beautiful 

[sarahb 17,188]

This guy ain't special, we already know of water dwelling dinosaurs

They're called ducks and penguins 

But nah this is super interesting, they keep coming out with new discoveries on Spinosaurus that just makes it weirder and weirder.