According to a statement announcing the findings, the spinosaurid, which lived about 125 million years ago, would have been more than 10 meters (about 33 feet) in length and weighed several tons.
Christopher Barker, a PhD doctoral student in vertebrate paleontology at the University of Southampton, who led the study, told CNN via email on Thursday that the spinosaurid remains belong to a new species.
“It’s probably a new species, but we can’t name it based on the material at hand,” Barker said.
Where were the prehistoric bones of spinosaurid found? a geological layer of rock known as the Vectis Formation Compton Chine on the southwest coast of the Isle of Wight, Barker said.
“Compton Bay is a well-known site for dinosaur fossils on the Isle of Wight. Most of these come from the older Wessex Formation, which coexisted with dinosaurs,” Barker said. “Our spinosaurs are actually from the Vectis Formation. are, and bones (dinosaur or otherwise) are rare in that formation (which is composed of several rock layers).
He added that it is “important in that[it]is the first identifiable theropod from the Vectis Formation.”
Theropods are a group of dinosaurs that includes the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Velociraptors made famous by the Jurassic Park movie franchise. Barker said the newly discovered dinosaur would have been bigger than a double-decker bus.
Marks on fossil bones reveal how scavengers and decomposers, organisms that break down decaying matter, likely fed the carcass.
Researchers will attempt to study thin sections of the same specimen so that they can in the near future examine the bone’s microscopic intrinsic properties, which may reveal details about its growth rate and estimated age.
Asked whether spinosaurid is the largest predator in Europe, Barker said: “Some bones exceed the previous ‘biggest in Europe’, so in that sense, it is. However, we ideally want Europe to have To be precise, the complete skeletons of all the largest predators of the world.”
In September, researchers found a spinosaurid on a beach on the Isle of Wight dating back to the early Cretaceous period, 125 million years ago. The species was previously unknown at that time.
The study was published Thursday in the scientific journal Peer J.