First swimming dinosaur discovered

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A chart comparing the some of the largest theropods.

Anokhi Patel, Reporter

Paleontologists have recently discovered the first “swimming dinosaur”, linking back to centuries. The fearsome Spinosaurus was half duck and half crocodile.

According to livescience.com, it was larger than all land walking carnivorous dinosaurs, including the T-Rex. Its cone shaped mouth was a lot like a crocodile, allowing it to quickly snatch fish. The ancient beast had an arched back noted to be taller than an adult male.

The most interesting information that researchers have discovered recently is that it was the only dinosaur to adapt living nearly entirely in water. Recent fossils reveal that the dinosaur’s structure was meant to be for an aquatic environment as it had webbed feet and came from a duck and crocodile structure.

Though, bones of the Spinosaurus have been found, this is the first full body composition to ever be discovered of this unknown species. In 1915, a German paleontologist named Ernest Stromer found some bones linking back to the Spinosaurus. He discovered spines up to seven feet tall in Egypt. Yet, his collection was destroyed, due to the Allied bombing in 1944, during the end of World War II.

However, there was still hope for the loss of the evidence, on April 28, a local fossil hunter brought paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim some fossils to identify. One unique bone caught Ibrahim’s eye. It was long and shaped like a blade and could of been a rib, but it had a long red line running through its cross-section. Ibrahim realized that he might of guessed wrong because the bone could be a spine of a Spinosaurus. He wanted to know more, so he went to a museum in Milano where paleontologists showed him bones of the Spinosaurus. There he learned that the bone he acquired was just as he suspected: the spine of the Spinosaurus. He was sure that the commercially acquired bones the paleontologists had shown him were from Morocco.

The mission had begun, researchers with the help of Ibahim went to the dinosaur site. There, they began to identify the bones and figured that the bones were a lot denser than rigid. Since marine animals have dense bones, they knew right away that the Spinosarus was a dinosaur suited for the aquatic environment.

By finding various bones of the species, scientists and researchers have created a digital photographic design of the “swimming dinosaur.” It’s teeth were similar to the modern crocodile, it had nostrils in the middle of the stout, and it had paddle like feet, similar to a duck, and it had holes and canals for breathing in the water.

Many researchers say that the dinosaur was more deadly than the T-Rex and it shouldn’t have been approached in land or water.