An 'astonishingly' large new dinosaur species has been discovered in the Sahara
This school-bus-sized predator was so unusual that scientists didn't recognise it at first
Photo credit: Dani Navarro
Tom Howarth
Published: February 19, 2026 at 1:00 pm
Palaeontologists have discovered a colossal new species of dinosaur in a remote part of the Sahara. Named Spinosaurus mirabilis – meaning ‘astonishing’ Spinosaurus in Latin – the giant lived in what is now Niger more than 95 million years ago, far from the coastal regions where similar fish-hunting dinosaurs are usually found.
As long as a school bus and weighing several tonnes, the new species is easily distinguishable from other spinosaurs by the scimitar-shaped crest on its head. The feature was so unusual that researchers didn’t recognise it when they first unearthed it in 2019, only realising its significance after returning in 2022 to find more specimens.
“This find was so sudden and amazing, it was really emotional for our team,” said Paul Sereno, a professor of organismal biology and anatomy at the University of Chicago. Sereno led the discovery, which was published in a study in Science.
“I’ll forever cherish the moment in camp when we crowded around a laptop to look at the new species for the first time, after one member of our team generated 3D digital models of the bones we found to assemble the skull... That’s when the significance of the discovery really registered,” he added.
More:
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/new-dinosaur-discovered-sahara-spinosaurus-mirabilis
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