A team of scientists from various Universities of US(United States) have discovered a carnivorous (meat eating) swimming dinosaur named “Spinosaurus aegyptiacus” at the Kem Kem region of the Moroccan Sahara in North Africa.
Key Points:
i.About Spinosaurus aegyptiacus:
- Unlike other theropod dinosaurs, the 50-feet (15 meters) long Spinosaurus used its tail for swimming to actively hunt for prey in rivers. By the end of the tail, it has bony bumps that help adjacent vertebrae disappear & assist the tail’s tip move back and forth in a way that would propel through water.
- Lived about 95 million years ago (Cretaceous period), spinosaurus was even longer than an adult Tyrannosaurus rex (T-rex).
ii.Discovery:
- Scientists used a flexible model to quantitatively assess the performance of the tail &they attached it to a robotic system that mimics swimming movements.
- After that, they compared the swimming performance of the model Spinosaurus tail to those from crocodiles, newts and other dinosaurs, which gave consistent results.
iii.Benefit: The new findings help scientists a deeper understanding of the appearance, lifestyle and capabilities of the longest meat-eating dinosaur on record.
iv.Journal: The discovery supported by assistance from the National Geographic Society, is published in the journal Nature. Lead author of the study was Nizar Ibrahim, US based University of Detroit Mercy paleontologist and anatomist.
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