![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Spinosaurus-mirabilis-dinosaur-Illustration-by-Dani-Navarro-for-University-of-Chicago-and-Professor-.jpeg\")
Spinosaurus mirabilis dinosaur Illustration by Dani Navarro for University of Chicago (and) Professor Paul Sereno with fossil \u2013 SWNS<\/p>\n Spinosaurus mirabilis dinosaur Illustration by Dani Navarro for University of Chicago (and) Professor Paul Sereno with fossil \u2013 SWNS<\/p>\n
Scientists called \u201castonishing\u201d the first indisputable evidence of a new species of Spinosaurus found in over a century\u2014uncovered in a remote area of the Sahara Desert.<\/p>\n
The newly discovered scimitar-crested dinosaur was described as a \u201chell heron\u201d that fed on fish despite living hundreds of miles from the sea.<\/p>\n
Paleontologists say it appears to have been a wading predator of fish like its close relatives, but its habitat was more than 600 miles inland from the Tethys Sea in present day Niger.<\/p>\n
Study leader Professor Paul Sereno said the new species called Spinosaurus mirabilis, lived 95 million years ago as a shallow water predator alongside long-necked dinosaurs.<\/p>\n
It was similar in size and skeletal form to Spinosaurus aegyptiacus\u2014but was crowned with a unique scimitar-shaped bony crest.<\/p>\n
Prof. Sereno said the discovery of the crest was so large and unexpected that the team didn\u2019t initially recognize it for what it was when they plucked it and some jaw fragments from the desert surface.<\/p>\n
Returning with a larger team, they found two additional crests, and realized the novelty of the new species they had unearthed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis find was so sudden and amazing, it was really emotional for our team,\u201d said Sereno<\/a>, a professor of organismal biology and anatomy at the University of Chicago, who led the 20-person team.<\/p>\n They believe that the crest was brightly colored, curving toward the sky as a blade-shaped beacon, and sheathed in keratin. It may have been used for visual display rather than locomotion or hunting.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll forever cherish the moment in camp when we crowded around a laptop to look at the new species for the first time, after one member of our team generated 3D digital models of the bones we found to assemble the skull\u2014on solar power in the middle of the Sahara.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when the significance of the discovery really registered.\u201d<\/p>\n The fossil find, described in the<\/a> journal Science, may represent a \u2018third phase\u2019 of evolution of the massive, fish-eating dinosaurs, according to the research team.<\/p>\n Previously, spinosaurid bones and teeth had only been found principally in coastal deposits not far from the shoreline, leading some experts to believe that the fish-eating theropods may have been fully aquatic, pursuing prey underwater.<\/p>\n But the new fossil area in Niger documents animals that were living inland, up to 620 miles from the nearest marine shoreline.<\/p>\n MORE DISCOVERIES: The researchers say that the \u201cstriking\u201d interdigitating upper and lower tooth rows made a deadly trap for slippery fish.<\/p>\n \u201cI envision this dinosaur as a kind of \u2018hell heron\u2019 that that had no problem wading on its sturdy legs into two meters of water, but probably spent most of its time stalking shallower traps for the many large fish of the day,\u201d Sereno explained.<\/p>\n Their proximity to partial skeletons of long-necked dinosaurs\u2014all buried in river sediments\u2014suggest they lived in a forested inland habitat dissected by rivers, according to the research team.<\/p>\n What inspired him to go to the desert in the first place\u2013and fall in love with it<\/p>\n The journey that culminated in the new discovery started with a single sentence in a monograph from the 1950s: a\u00a0French geologist mentioned finding a single saber-shaped fossilized tooth resembling those of the giant predator Carcharodontosaurus found in Egypt\u2019s Western Desert at the turn of the last century.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one had been back to that tooth site in over 70 years,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an adventure. A year and a half wandering into the sand seas to search for this locale and then find an even more remote fossil area with a new species.\u201d<\/p>\n The team ended up meeting a local Tuareg man who led them on his motorbike deep into the center of the Sahara, where he had seen huge fossil bones.<\/p>\n After nearly a full day of travel, they reached the site\u2014where the team found teeth and jaw bones of the new species of Spinosaurus.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nowhere else like the Sahara. If you can brave the elements and are willing to go after the unknown, you might just uncover a lost world.<\/p>\n \u201cNow all of the young scholars who joined me are co-authors on the report gracing the cover of Science.\u201d<\/p>\n The dinosaur fossil will now be showcased in the Museum of the River, in Niger\u2019s capital of Niamey, a zero-energy institute that Prof. Sereno founded.<\/p>\n \u201cThe local people we work with are my lifelong friends now, including the man who led us to Jenguebi and the astonishing spinosaur.<\/p>\n \u201cThey understand the importance of what we\u2019re doing together, for science and for their country.\u201d<\/p>\n MORE DINO DYNAMOS:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Spinosaurus-mirabilis-dinosaur-Illustration-by-Dani-Navarro-for-University-of-Chicago-SWNS.jpg\")
Illustration of Spinosaurus mirabilis dinosaur by Dani Navarro for University of Chicago-SWNS<\/p>\n
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Spanish paleontologist Dan Vidal hovers over a collection of fossils, including the crest and jaw pieces of a new scimitar-crested Spinosaurus species \u2013 SWNS<\/p>\n
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