Europe's 'largest ever' land dinosaur found on Isle of Wight

Image source, AFP

Scientists say that the remains of Europe's largest dinosaur have been found.

The remains of a predator that lived 125 million years ago have been identified by scientists.

The bones were from a predatory dinosaur.

Chris Barker said it was a big animal.

There were bones found on the south-west coast of the Isle of Wight.

The predator was dubbed the "white rock spinosaurid" after the remains were found.

Image source, Chris Barker Dan Folkes

Image source, Jeremy Lockwood

Mr Barker said that the animal was over 10 metres in length and several metres in weight.

It appears to be one of the largest predatory dinosaurs ever found in Europe - perhaps even the biggest yet known.

It would have been living at the beginning of a period of rising sea levels and would have been looking for food.

We haven't given it a formal scientific name because it is only known from fragments. We hope that more remains will show up soon.

Image source, Jeremy Lockwood

Nick Chase was a dinosaur hunter who died before the Covid epidemic.

Jeremy Lockwood, another co-author of the study and a PhD student at the University of Portsmouth and Natural History Museum, said that he found a lump of pelvis with tunnels bored into it while searching for the remains of a dinosaur.

They may have been caused by a type of beetle that eats bones. An interesting thought is that this giant killer ended up being a meal for a lot of insects.

A study on the discovery of two new species of spinosaurid was published by the University ofSouthampton.

Image source, Chase family

You can follow the radio station on social media. Send your stories to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk