Палеонтологчид Нигер улсын нутгаас 95 сая жилийн өмнөх цэрдийн галавын үед амьдарч байсан Спинозаврын төрлийн шинэ зүйлийг олж илрүүлснээ Science сэтгүүлд нийтэлжээ.
Чикагогийн их сургуулийн палеонтологч Пол Серено болон түүний баг 2019 оны арваннэгдүгээр сард Нигерийн Женгюби бүс нутгаас уг олдворыг анх олж, 2022 онд хийсэн томоохон малтлагаар судалгаагаа баталгаажуулсан байна. Spinosaurus mirabilis хэмээн нэрлэсэн энэхүү үлэг гүрвэл нь гавлынхаа оройд сэлэм хэлбэрийн том сэрвээтэй бөгөөд энэ нь өмнө нь мэдэгдэж байсан S. aegyptiacus зүйлээс ялгарах гол шинж юм. Уг сэрвээ нь кератин давхаргаар бүрхэгдсэн, хатуу ясан бүтэцтэй тул тулаанд ашиглахад тохиромжгүй, гоёл эсвэл таних тэмдгийн үүрэгтэй байсан гэж судлаачид үзэж байна.
Шинэ олдвор нь Спинозаврын төрлийн үлэг гүрвэлүүд зөвхөн далайн эрэг орчмоор амьдардаг байсан гэх онолыг эргэлзээтэй болгож байна. Учир нь уг олдвор эртний далайн эргээс 500-1000 километрийн зайд, гол мөрөн бүхий ой модтой эх газрын бүсээс олдсон нь тэднийг гүехэн ус, голын сав газарт загас барьж амьдардаг байсныг харуулж байна.
Пол Сереногийн тайлбарласнаар, уг амьтан нь өнөөгийн дэглий шувуутай төстэй аргаар ангуучилдаг байсан бололтой. Тэдний шүдний бүтэц нь мах тасдан идэх бус, харин гулгамтгай загасыг барьж авахад зориулагдсан байдаг нь тэднийг загасаар хооллодог махчин амьтан байсныг баталж байна.
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Paul Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago, has described a newly identified dinosaur’s hunting style as similar to a heron’s, wading into shallow water to snatch fish. “I suspect that this animal was fishing largely in about 3 feet of water,” he explained in an email to NPR, “although it was large enough to stand in about 6 feet of water without floating.”
Researchers have named the animal Spinosaurus mirabilis, a newly identified species recovered from sandstone outcrops in Niger. The dinosaur lived roughly 95 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period, in a marshy inland area of what is now the central Sahara.
The discovery is described in a study published in Science. It marks only the second confirmed species in the Spinosaurus genus, which was first identified in 1915 and, for more than a century, included only one recognized species, S. aegyptiacus.
The fossils turned up 500 to 1,000 kilometers, roughly 310 to 620 miles, from the nearest marine shoreline that existed at the time. That distance adds new evidence to a long running debate over whether Spinosaurus species swam through open ocean or hunted mainly in shallow, inland waters.
A Crest Discovered Before Anyone Knew What It Was
S. mirabilis is named for an enormous, scimitar shaped crest on top of its skull, a curved, blade like structure resembling a short sword with a broader tip. The crest sets the species apart from its only known relative, S. aegyptiacus, which had a lower, less pronounced ridge along its snout.
Paleontologist Daniel Vidal first spotted a strange bone poking out of the ground at a remote site the team later named Jenguebi, in November 2019. It looked like a vertebra at first. “It was amazing,” Vidal recalled. “It was like a unicorn.”
The crest’s surface texture and its internal network of blood vessel channels indicate it was covered in keratin, the same material found in human fingernails and hair. Because it was made of solid bone without the air pockets seen in some other dinosaur crests, researchers believe it was likely too delicate to use in physical combat.
When the team returned to Jenguebi in 2022 with a larger group of researchers, they uncovered two additional crests along with more jaw material. That second round of fossils was what convinced the team they had found a distinct, previously unknown species rather than an unusual individual of the known one.
A Location That Complicates the Aquatic Dinosaur Theory
Fossils of S. aegyptiacus have come mainly from sites in Egypt and Morocco that once bordered ancient seas. That coastal distribution has led some researchers to argue that Spinosaurus species spent much of their lives swimming through marine or nearshore environments.
The area around Jenguebi tells a different story. Partial skeletons of long necked dinosaurs were found nearby, buried in river sediments, suggesting the S. mirabilis fossils came from a forested, inland habitat cut through by rivers rather than a coastal one.
Sereno described the animal’s likely behavior in those surroundings. “I envision this dinosaur as a kind of ‘hell heron‘ 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,” he said.
Unlike most theropod dinosaurs, which had an underbite, S. mirabilis had interdigitating teeth: the upper and lower sets slid between each other and poked out of the jaw, an arrangement suited to gripping slippery prey rather than tearing flesh.
Reaching a Remote Fossil Site in the Central Sahara
Sereno was first drawn to the region by a decades old report. In the 1950s, French geologist Hugues Faure described finding a dinosaur tooth in Niger, and Sereno later searched for similar fossil sites across the central Sahara. “I knew it was the needle in the haystack,” he said of the search.
Jenguebi itself is dry and barren today, with few trees and stretches of open sand. The local Tuareg community calls the area Sirig Taghat, meaning No water, no goat.
A 20 person research team led by Sereno carried out the excavation. Alongside the S. mirabilis remains, the site also yielded fossils from Carcharodontosaurus, titanosaurs, and fish.
“This find was so sudden and amazing, it was really emotional for our team,” Sereno said. “I’ll 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, on solar power in the middle of the Sahara. That’s when the significance of the discovery really registered.”
“The local people we work with are my lifelong friends, now including the man who led us to Jenguebi and the astonishing spinosaur,” Sereno said. “They understand the importance of what we’re doing together, for science and for their country.”
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