Feb 19 (Reuters) – At a remote and barren Sahara desert site in Niger, scientists have unearthed fossils of a new species of Spinosaurus, among the biggest of the meat-eating dinosaurs, notable for its large blade-shaped head crest and jaws bearing interlocking teeth for snaring slippery fish.It prowled a forested inland environment and strode into rivers to catch sizable fish like a modern-day wading bird – a “hell heron,” as one of the researchers put it, considering it was about 40 feet (12 meters) long and weighed 5-7 tons.The dinosaur presented a striking profile on the Cretaceous Period landscape of Africa some 95 million years ago as it hunted large fish like coelacanths in the region’s waterways. Its bony cranial crest, about 20 inches (50 cm) tall, resembled a curved sword called a scimitar, and it had a large sail-like structure on its back and an elongated crocodile-like snout.AdvertisementAdvertisementAlong with the existing genus name Spinosaurus, meaning “spine lizard,” the researchers gave it the species name mirabilis, meaning “astonishing,” referring to its crest. A genus is a group of closely related species bearing similar traits. For example, lions and tigers are the same genus but different species.It is only the second known species of Spinosaurus, a dinosaur that has gained fame in popular culture for its depiction in the “Jurassic Park” movies. The other one, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, was named in 1915 based on fossils from Egypt.Spinosaurus, the only known semiaquatic dinosaur predator, joi …
