Weighing several tons and up to 10 meters long, " White Stone Spinosaurus " is probably the largest known land predator in Europe.
" White stone spinosaurus " has not yet received an official scientific name , but may be the largest known predator in Europe
British researchers have found an intact dinosaur predator from the Isle of Wight. Temporarily known as "White Stone Spinosaurus", it is 10 meters long and lived 125 million years ago. Paleontologists believe it is the largest predator in Europe ever recorded.
Experts have roughly deduced the creature's survival time by looking at the final resting place, a 125-million-year-old rock wall. This geological site has long preserved the beginning of a period of rising sea levels– when "WhiteStone Spinosaurus" probably lived here.
Fossils excavated from the southwest coast formation include the pelvis and tail vertebrae. These are now preserved at the Dinosaur Island Museum, where researchers are discussing dinosaur names. White stone spinosaurus, almost as long as a city bus, is an undeniable killer.
"It's a huge animal, more than 10 meters (32.8 feet) long and probably weighing several tons," said lead researcher Chris Barker. "In some dimensions, it seems to represent one of the largest predatory dinosaurs ever found in Europe — and perhaps even the largest known to date."
The fossil remains were found in the Vectis group off the southwest coast of the Isle of Wight
For Dr. Jeremy Lockwood, the discovery was bittersweet, and while proud of the effort, he clarified that most of the fossils were excavated by the recently deceased Nick Chase. Lockwood described him as "one of Britain's most skilled dinosaur hunters".
Lockwood said: "I searched with Nick for the remains of this dinosaur and found a pelvis with a hole drilled in it, each hole the size of my index finger. "We think they are caused by a bone-eating larvae that clears beetles."
"It's an interesting idea that this giant killer ended up being food for many insects."
The discovery was unearthed on the Isle of Wight in 2021. For Darren Nash, co-author who was involved in at least one of the findings last year, the finding strongly supports one of his studies.
"This new animal supports our previous argument — published last year — that spinosaurus dinosaurs originated in Western Europe," he said. "Because at the moment we only know from the fragments, we haven't given it an official scientific name yet. We hope that more bodies will appear in time. ”
The researchers found the remains, including the tail and pelvic vertebrae, confirming that the dinosaur was 32.8 feet long
It's remarkable, but this particular species isn't as long as the largest spinosaurus in the fossil record. The creature even dwarfed Tyrannosaurus rex and was likely to swim – wreaking havoc on marine and land prey.
Although spinosaurus dinosaurs first appeared on the European continent, dinosaurs as a whole eventually became extinct in the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event 66 million years ago. This was not confirmed until the 1980s when experts discovered a layer of fossils in the soil.
As for The White Rock Spinosaurus, this particular specimen took its last breath near the Isle of Wight millions of years before an asteroid hit Mexico.
The research team is currently focused on learning more about the details of dinosaur biology. Buck and his colleagues are now generating several flakes of fossil fragments to study the microscopic properties inside animal bones — which could confirm the creature's age and growth rate.
"Sadly, it's only known from a small amount of material, but these are enough to show that it's a huge creature," Buck said.