Spinosaurus mirabilis, new species with a scimitar skull crest

[Ben Creisler]

Ben Creisler

bcre...@gmail.com

A new paper:

Spinosaurus mirabilis sp. nov.

Paul C. Sereno, Daniel Vidal, Nathan P. Myhrvold, Evan Johnson-Ransom, María Ciudad Real, Stephanie L. Baumgart, Noelia Sánchez Fontela, Todd L. Green, Evan T. Saitta, Boubé Adamou, Lauren L. Bop, Tyler M. Keillor, Erin C. Fitzgerald, Didier B. Dutheil, Robert A. S. Laroche, Alexandre V. Demers-Potvin, Álvaro Simarro, Francesc Gascó-Lluna, Ana Lázaro, Arturo Gamonal, Charles V. Beightol, Vincent Reneleau, Rachel Vautrin, Filippo Bertozzo, Alejandro Granados, Grace Kinney-Broderick, Jordan C. Mallon, Rafael M. Lindoso, and Jahandar Ramezani (2026)
Scimitar-crested Spinosaurus species from the Sahara caps stepwise spinosaurid radiation.
Science 391(6787): eadx5486
DOI:10.1126/science.adx5486
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adx5486

Editor’s summary

Recent descriptions of and debates about the massive, fish-eating dinosaur Spinosaurus have brought this striking predator to the forefront of the dinosaur pantheon. Its huge size and distinctive morphology have stimulated much debate about the degree to which it lived an aquatic lifestyle. Sereno et al. describe a crested fossil Spinosaurus found in northern Africa as a new species. The researchers argue that this group of dinosaurs underwent three phases of evolution with increasing aquatic adaptations and existence in habitats around the Tethys Sea. —Sacha Vignieri

Structured Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The fossils of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, a giant sail-backed, fish-eating theropod dinosaur from northern Africa, have inspired competing lifestyle interpretations, either as a semiaquatic ambush predator stalking shorelines and shallows or a fully aquatic predator in pursuit of prey underwater. Its bones and teeth have been found only in coastal deposits near marine margins, a locale potentially consistent with either lifestyle interpretation.

RATIONALE

In the central Sahara, a new fossiliferous area (Jenguebi) was discovered in beds equivalent in age [Farak Formation; Cenomanian ~95 million years ago (Mya)] to those yielding fossil remains of S. aegyptiacus. We describe from this area a new species, Spinosaurus mirabilis sp. nov., which is very similar to S. aegyptiacus in skeletal form but with a much taller, scimitar-shaped cranial crest. Two new sauropods were found in close association with the new spinosaurid buried in fluvial sediments indicative of an inland riparian habitat.

RESULTS

S. mirabilis sp. nov. is distinguished by the low profile of its snout, a hypertrophied nasal-prefrontal crest, greater spacing of posterior maxillary teeth, and other features. Its features highlight the extraordinary specializations of both species of the genus Spinosaurus, including interdigitating upper and lower teeth. Principal component analysis of body proportions places spinosaurids between semiaquatic waders (e.g., herons) and aquatic divers (e.g., darters) distant from all other predatory dinosaurs. A time-calibrated phylogenetic analysis resolves three evolutionary phases: an initial Jurassic radiation when their distinctive elongate fish-snaring skull evolved and split into two distinctive designs, baryonychine and spinosaurine; an Early Cretaceous circum-Tethyan diversification when both reigned as dominant predators; and a final early Late Cretaceous phase when spinosaurines attained maximum body size as shallow water ambush specialists limited geographically to northern Africa and South America.

CONCLUSION

The discovery of the tall-crested S. mirabilis sp. nov. in a riparian setting within an inland basin supports a lifestyle interpretation of a wading, shoreline predator with visual display an important aspect of its biology. At the end of the Cenomanian about 95 million years ago, an abrupt eustatic rise in sea level and the attendant climate change brought the spinosaurid radiation to an end.

*****
News:

https://www.sci.news/paleontology/spinosaurus-mirabilis-14571.html

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-scimitar-crested-spinosaurus-species-central.html

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/spinosaurus-scimitar-head-crest

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/newly-discovered-horned-dinosaur-was-like-a-unicorn-from-hell/

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/new-dinosaur-discovered-sahara-spinosaurus-mirabilis

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/dinosaurs/spinosaurus-mirabilis

[Mike Taylor]

Oh yes, I definitely am 100% convinced that it took twenty-nine authors to write this ten-page paper, and that a new species is certainly warranted, and that the best way to deal with the two new sauropods is to mention them in two sentences and then ignore them. This is definitely the way to do science.

-- Mike.

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[Thomas Richard Holtz]

Ignoring the sauropod aspect (much like the authors did... :-) ), one of the first things I thought when I saw a draft of the paper was: "Do they not know that in the Systematic Paleontology section of a paper, you are obligated to list ALL authors in in the statement? You aren't allowed to "et al." it!"

> Oh yes, I definitely am 100% convinced that it took twenty-nine authors to write this ten-page paper, and that a new species is certainly warranted, and that the best way to 

> deal with the two new sauropods is to mention them in two sentences and then ignore them. This is definitely the way to do science.

> -- Mike.

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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tho...@umd.edu         Phone: 301-405-4084
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Office: CHEM 1225B, 8051 Regents Dr., College Park MD 20742

Dept. of Geological, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, University of Maryland
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[Ben Creisler]

Some additional items:

‘Hell-heron’ dinosaur discovered in the central Sahara
A UChicago-led team unearthed ‘Spinosaurus mirabilis,’ a fish-eating giant and the first new species of its kind in a century, where nothing like it was supposed to exist

https://news.uchicago.edu/story/hell-heron-dinosaur-discovered-central-sahara

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Videos:

Tall-Crested Spinosaurus Discovered! with Daniel Videl
People Are Fish
49 min.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HlsB3dn7sk&t=193s

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NEW Spinosaurus Species! S. mirabilis Enters the Chat
Fossil Crates (video)
10 min.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DdtXoGIiNk

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New 'hell heron' dinosaur discovered in the Sahara
The University of Chicago
4 min.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1QAVYa3JWM

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[Gregory Paul]

Interesting paper and the main point is correct. A true diving dinosaur is not going to have pneumatic elements and a drag inducing sail (sailfish drop theirs at speed). 

Science would not consider publication of a paper on run-of-the-mill sauropods, the journal requires a hot-topic subject for a paper to be sent out for PR, that being testing the "Spinosaurus" lifestyle controversy in this case. 

I am disappointed that this does not do much to resolve the issue of the length of Spinosaurus hindlimbs and other proprtional issues. In the restored skeleton the T/F ratio of ~1.24 is higher than any nonavian theropod, something close to equal would be more likely for such a large and not all that fast beast. So this is not a sound basis for a restoration. If the femur is about as long as the tibia as is likely, then leg length would be much more normal relative to the rest of the skeleton in this taxon. And the pelvis considerably larger. I have always been way skeptical of the restoration of the Moroccan material the proportions being so bizarre -- does not meet the Carl Sagan metric -- had I tried to get the same restoration using the same data published little doubt it would have been PR rejected, and if I did get it through PR it would have then been widely and sharply criticized as it well should be LoL. (Nor is it likely I could get a criticism of current restorations through PR the PM seeming to have settled on the dinky legged version.) And the connection between the Moroccan and Egyptian material remains inadequate. A reliable restoration of "Spinosaurus" cannot yet be done, which is why I have not attempted such, the information not meeting my paleoartistic standards. We need better skeletal remains, especially from the Bahariya. 

GSPaul