A research team has found remains of an animal believed to be one of the largest hunting dinosaurs ever discovered in Europe on Britain’s Isle of Wight. The predator is said to have been up to ten meters long.
The bones, believed to be from a so-called Spinosaurus, were found on the southwest coast of the island, the research team reports in the journal PeerJ Life & Environment.
“It was a huge animal, more than 10 meters long, and judging by the dimensions, quite possibly the largest hunting dinosaur ever found in Europe,” said the team’s PhD student and lead author, Chris Baker, of the University of Southampton.
Crocodile head
The fossils – including pelvic bones and vertebrae – are of a two-legged dinosaur with a crocodile-like head. From the remains it can be seen that after the death a number of scavengers presumably attacked the spinosaur. Last year, the researchers from Southampton had already published findings on the study of two similar species.
The new find supports the assumption that Spinosaurus originally came from western Europe, where it split into several species before spreading further. The team now wants to examine thin layers of the found materials under the microscope to find out the age and other information about the growth of the predator.
The Isle of Wight lies off the south coast of England and has geological formations, some of which have layers that are many millions of years old.
