Europe’s Largest Ever Land Dinosaur found on the Isle of Wight

The bones of the predator, which reached more than 32ft (10m) long and lived approximately 125 million years ago, were discovered by paleontologists at the University of Southampton. The prehistoric bones belonged to a carnivorous spinosaurid Dinosaur with two legs and a crocodile-like face.

Chris Barker, a PhD student who conducted the study, described it as a “giant beast.” The bones, which comprise pelvis and tail vertebrae, were discovered on the Isle of Wight’s south-west shore. After the geological strata in which the bones were discovered, the predator was given the name “white rock spinosaurid.”

“This was a massive beast, measuring over 10 metres in length and weighing many tonnes,” Mr Barker added. “Based on some of the measurements, it looks to be one of the largest predatory Dinosaur ever discovered in Europe, if not the largest.”It would have lived at the start of a time of increasing sea levels and would have hunted for food in lagoonal waters and sandflats. Darren Naish, a co-author of the study, said: “We haven’t given it a proper scientific name since we just know parts of it right now. We are hopeful that more remains may be discovered in the near future.”

Darren Naish, a co-author of the study, said: “We haven’t given it a proper scientific name since we just know parts of it right now. We are hopeful that more remains may be discovered in the near future.” “Bone-eating larvae of a scavenger beetle most likely produced them. It’s an intriguing concept that this colossal killer ended up as a food for a variety of insects.” The discovery follows prior research on spinosaurids by a team from the University of Southampton, which released a publication in 2021 detailing the discovery of two new species.