Scientists unveil Spinosaurus, the underwater dinosaur

Scientists unveil Spinosaurus, the underwater dinosaur

Scientists unveiled Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, the 50-foot dinosaur that lived most of its life under water, at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

What do you get when when you cross the fearsome creatures from “Jurassic Park” with the shark from “Jaws,” super-sized with duck-like feet, and a crocodile snout the size of a human?

Scientists call it Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, the 50-foot dinosaur they unveiled Thursday at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C., reports Newsday.

The predator is the only dinosaur known to have lived much of its life in the water.

Spinosaurus had a long neck, strong clawed forearms, powerful jaws and penguin-like dense bones. It propelled itself in water with flat feet that were probably webbed.  The sea creature, which lived 95 million years ago, also had a spiny sail on its back that was seven feet tall, according to the study the journal Science released Thursday.

“It’s like working on an extraterrestrial or an alien,” said study author Nizar Ibrahim of the University of Chicago, standing before a room-sized reconstruction of the skeleton at the National Geographic Museum. The National Geographic Society provided funding for the research.

“It’s so different than anything else around…[it is] so bizarre it’s going to force dinosaur experts to rethink many things they thought they knew about dinosaurs,” said Ibrahim, a paleontologist who led the international research team for the project.

The first reported Spinosaurus discovery was in Egypt over 100 years ago. Most of those bones were in Munich, Germany, and were destroyed in 1944 during World War II.

A new skeleton Ibrahim found in Morocco in 2008 revealed the creature was adapted to aquatic living, contrary to what scientists originally thought.

One significant feature of Spinosaurus was its small nostrils in the middle of its skull, which allowed it to breathe when part of its head was under water.

Spinosaurus grew 9 feet longer than Tyrannosaurus rex, and dined on sea creatures the size of cars, in an area of the world that was the “most dangerous place,” said Ibrahim.

Spinosaurus is the subject of the exhibition that opened Sept. 12 at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C., and a National Geographic/NOVA special to be broadcast on PBS, Nov. 5 at 9 p.m.

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