A rich horde of fossils from the Sahara has revealed that the largest known predator to ever walk the earth was also a superb swimmer, overturning the common view that dinosaurs were terrestrial beasts.
In a study published Thursday in the journal Science, an international research team described how it had uncovered the partial skeleton of a semiaquatic dinosaur, Spinosaurus, in Morocco. They estimate that the creature—not yet fully grown—measured 50 feet, at least nine feet longer than the largest documented Tyrannosaurus rex.
“We’ve resurrected a giant from deep time…a lost world buried for more than 95 million years,” said Nizar Ibrahim, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago and lead author of the study. “It is arguably the most enigmatic dinosaur” yet described.
Scientists Identify First Swimming Dinosaur
By rokur
rokur
Production engineer and certified swim coach. Full-time IT consultant, spare-time swimming aficionado. 2 sons, 2 daughters and a wife. President of the Faroe Islands Aquatics Federation. Likes to run :-)