The remains of one of Europe’s largest known land hunters have been discovered thanks to research undertaken by palaeontologists at the University of Southampton. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal PeerJ Life & Environment.

The new findings, which were discovered on the Isle of Wight on England’s south coast, are spinosaurids, a group of two-legged, crocodile-faced carnivorous dinosaurs. The discovery follows the University of Southampton team’s prior work on this group of dinosaurs, which published on the discovery of two new species in 2021.

This large predator was given the name “White Rock spinosaurid” because it was found in a layer of rock called “White Rock.”

“This was a huge animal, exceeding 10 m in length, and judging from some of the dimensions, probably represents the largest predatory dinosaur ever found in Europe,” said Chris Barker, the lead author. “It’s just a shame it’s only known from such scant material.”

The bones were discovered in Compton Chine, on the Isle of Wight’s southwest shore, and comprise massive pelvis and tail vertebrae, among other things. The Cretaceous rocks are renowned for their dinosaur fossils, but it is less well known that the island’s fossil record contains dinosaurs from more than one period of dinosaur evolution. Even today, some of those sections are little known.

“Unusually, this specimen eroded out of the Vectis Formation, which is notoriously poor in dinosaur fossils,” said corresponding author Neil Gostling of the University of Southampton, who teaches evolution and palaeobiology. “It’s likely to be the youngest spinosaur material yet known from the UK.”

The Vectis Formation, which dates back 125 million years, represents the beginning of a time of rising sea levels, when the “White Rock spinosaurid” hunted for food in lagoonal waters and sandflats.

“Because it’s only known from fragments at the moment, we haven’t given it a formal scientific name,” said co-author Darren Naish. “We hope that additional remains will turn up in time.”

“This new animal bolsters our previous argument – published last year – that spinosaurid dinosaurs originated and diversified in western Europe before becoming more widespread.”

Marks on the bone also revealed that the body of this mammoth undoubtedly supported a variety of scavengers and decomposers even after death.

“Most of these amazing fossils were found by Nick Chase, one of Britain’s most skilled dinosaur hunters, who sadly died just before the Covid epidemic,” said co-author Jeremy Lockwood. “I was searching for remains of this dinosaur with Nick and found a lump of pelvis with tunnels bored into it, each about the size of my index finger. We think they were caused by bone eating larvae of a type of scavenging beetle. It’s an interesting thought that this giant killer wound up becoming a meal for a host of giant insects .”

In the near future, researchers plan to create thin pieces of the material to examine the bone’s microscopic internal features, which could reveal its growth rate and likely age.

Image Credit: ANTHONY HUTCHINGS

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