Move over,T. rex. There is a new king of the dinosaurs in town.
Its name is Spinosaurus (pronounced SPINE-uh-SORE-us), and it will be on display at the National Geographic Museum through April.
The Spinosaurus is not a new dinosaur — its fossils were first discovered by a German paleontologist (a scientist who studies ancient creatures) named Ernst Stromer more than 100 years ago. But Stromer's specimen, along with a lot of his research, was destroyed during World War II, leaving modern scientists with almost no other Spinosaurus fossils and little knowledge of what this dinosaur might have been like.
That changed last year, when paleontologists Nizar Ibrahim and Paul Sereno uncovered a partial Spinosaurus skeleton buried in Africa’s Sahara Desert. The discovery, added to Stromer’s drawings, helped them piece together a picture of the creature.
What they came up with was pretty impressive. As long as a school bus and as heavy as an elephant, the Spinosaurus was the largest predatory (animal-eating) dinosaur to have existed — even bigger than Tyrannosaurus rex.
But its size isn’t the most important thing about the Spinosaurus. When paleontologists were studying their newly uncovered skeleton, they noticed things that seemed very odd. The dinosaur had a narrow skull full of conical teeth like a crocodile’s and hips like a whale’s. Its spindly neck reminded them of a crane’s neck, and its feet were broad and as flat as paddles.
These qualities were clues, and paleontologists had to figure out what they meant. What did it say about the Spinosaurus that its body was similar to a crocodile, a whale and a crane — animals that live in or around water?
Ibrahim came to a startling conclusion: The Spinosaurus must have been semiaquatic (partly water-dwelling).
This was a big deal because no other dinosaur has been proven to have been able to swim.
Then again, the Spinosaurus isn’t like any other dinosaur.
“This thing was just really bizarre,” Ibrahim said by phone from his office in Chicago.
The discovery that the Spinosaurus could swim solves another mystery associated with the creature: its diet.
Ibrahim explained that the Spinosaurus lived in an area called the "Delta of Danger" in North Africa. That region is now mostly desert, but when the Spinosaurus was alive 100 million years ago, it was a vast swamp full of dinosaurs, including winged pterosaurs (TARE-uh-SORES) and a T rex.-like creature called Carcharodontosaurus (car-care-uh-DON-tuh-SORE-us).
The presence of so many predators had scientists confused, because there didn’t seem to be enough smaller animals around to feed them. But if the Spinosaurus could swim, it could eat sharks and crocodiles as well as land animals.
The National Geographic Museum, which helped pay for Ibrahim's research, tried to bring that "Delta of Danger" to life with its Spinosaurus exhibit. Visitors can see a model of the Spinosaurus skeleton along with re-creations of other predators with which it shared the land and water.
“This is really as close as you’ll get to walking out of a time machine in the Cretaceous Period,” Ibrahim said.
Considering how dangerous the Spinosaurus was, it’s probably as close as you’d want to get.
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If you go
What: "Spinosaurus: Lost Giant of the Cretaceous" at the National Geographic Museum.
Where: 17th and M streets NW.
(It's two blocks north of the Farragut North Metro station.)
When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily until April 12.
How much: $11 for adults, $7 for ages 5 to 12, free age 5 and younger.
For more information: A parent can call 202–857-7700 or visit www.ngmuseum.org.
