A swimming dinosaur: The tail of Spinosaurus

A swimming dinosaur

A new fossil of one of the most unusual dinosaurs, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, suggests it was a “river monster” powered by a fin-like tail. A new fossil found in Morocco has revealed shockingly long spines on the dinosaur’s tail that could have made it work like a giant fin. Hydrodynamic tests with plastic reconstructions of various tail shapes showed that the spinosaurus’s newt-like appendage would produce much more thrust than the tails of other dinosaurs. Spinosaurus aegyptiacus was probably even bigger than Tyrannosaurus rex, and the only other skeleton ever found was destroyed in the Second World War, says palaeontologist Nizar Ibrahim.

Nature | 5 min videoReference: Nature paper