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New dinosaur from 95,000,000 years ago may have been ‘first dragon’ | News Weird
A new species of dinosaur known as the ‘hell-heron’ has some fantasy fans believing that Game of Thrones-style dragons could have once terrorised our planet.
A mysterious ‘dragon-like’ skull uncovered by scientists in the Sahara has people wondering if it was a fire-breathing beast or, thanks to its horn, some kind of Jurassic unicorn.
While ‘officially’ flying reptiles grabbing villagers and torching castles have never existed, it is thought that these legends evolved from people spotting large reptiles in the wild.
The bones were discovered by University of Chicago palaeontologist Paul Sereno and his team.
‘I definitely think the ancients encountered at least a couple of things like this because this is definitely a dragon,’ one person claimed on social media.
Landing in North Africa, Serano ended up meeting a local Tuareg man who led them on his motorbike deep into the centre of the Sahara, where he had seen huge fossil bones.
With night closing in and time running out before having to return, the team found a set of teeth and jaw bones from this new species of Spinosaurus.
Publishing their work in the journal Science, scientists estimated there were ten to 17 different species of this prehistoric predator.
The team say the finding of Spinosaurus mirabilis, is the first new spinosaurid species discovered in more than a century.
‘This find was so sudden and amazing, it was really emotional for our team,’ said Sereno in a statement.
Reconstructions of the skull have revealed more than a passing similarity with the mythical fire-breathing creatures.
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‘I’ll forever cherish the moment in camp when we crowded around a laptop to look at the new species for the first time’, he added.
Spinosaurid teeth found not far from the shoreline had led some experts to hypothesise that these fish-eaters may have been fully aquatic, but the most recent discovery miles inland makes scientists believe it was more of a wader.
‘I envision this dinosaur as a kind of ‘hell heron’ that had no problem wading on its sturdy legs into two meters of water but probably spent most of its time stalking shallower traps for the many large fish of the day,’ Sereno said.
At the end of the Cenomanian period, about 95 million years ago, an abruptrise in sea level and climate change brought the spinosaurid era to an untimely end.
But despite its tragic demise, the replicas will join the Dinosaur Expedition exhibit at the Chicago Children’s Museum next month.
‘Letting kids feel the excitement of new discoveries—that’s key to ensuring the next generation of scientists who will discover many more things about our precious planet worth preserving,’ Sereno said.
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