Spinosaurus

A sail and a crocodile snout

On its back, very long bones grew up from its backbone. They were more than one and a half meters long and held up a sail of skin. [1][2]

What was this sail for? Maybe for controlling its body heat, for getting noticed, or for helping it in the water. Nobody is sure. [1][2]

Its snout was long, low and narrow, like a crocodile's. Its teeth were straight and pointed, without serrated edges, just right for catching fish. [2][4]

In the water, or at the water's edge?

Scientists have been debating how it lived for years. In 2014, a team describes it as a hunter that waited for fish at the water's edge, and walked on four legs. [4]

In 2020, the same team presents its tail, found in Morocco: flat, flexible, more than 5 meters long, like a big paddle. Researchers from Harvard University test it on a robot: it works like a swimmer's tail. [2][3]

In 2022, two studies disagree. The first finds very dense bones, which would have helped it dive to hunt. The second thinks it walked on two legs and often went into the water, but swam badly and slowly. [2][4]

In 2024, other researchers picture it hunting by wading through the water instead, like a heron. The question is not settled yet. [1][2]

Its discovery

In 1912, Richard Markgraf finds the first Spinosaurus bones in the Bahariya Oasis, in Egypt. In 1915, paleontologist Ernst Stromer gives it its name. [1][2]

These bones were destroyed in 1944, during World War II, when the museum in Munich was bombed. Stromer's photos of them remain. [1][2]

For more than a century, only very incomplete remains were known. In Morocco, a team finds new bones starting in 2014, then digs out its tail in 2018. Each discovery moves the debate forward. [1][2][3]