Discovery of the largest carnivorous dinosaur in Europe

Discovery of the largest carnivorous dinosaur in Europe

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The giant dinosaurs of the Cretaceous have not ceased to amaze the paleontologists nor to make the general public dream! A research team presents a article in the newspaper PeerJ Life & Environment in which she reports the discovery of the remains of what would have been the biggest dinosaur European predator. The discovery of the fossils was made on the Isle of Wight located in the English Channel, south of England. The remains date from the Lower Cretaceous and consist of posterior vertebrae, fragments of ribs,ilium and long bones, but no cranial remains have been recorded.

A giant and “anonymous” spinosaurid

The comparison of these remains with those of other dinosaurs allows the authors to classify the discovered individual among the spinosauridswithin which are found the species of the genera Spinosaurus, Baryonyx, Suchomimus or Ichthyovenator. Species in this group have a skull elongate typical of piscivores and have a ecology associated with the presence of watercoursesalthough their ability to hunt in water is still widely debated. The specimen has not yet been classified within a species and has been tentatively named ” white rock spinosaurid “, according to the name of the layer of sediment in which it was discovered. According to the authors, the specimen would have measured more than 10 meters in length and would be larger than the largest individuals of carnivorous dinosaurs found so far in Europe.

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