Bones found on Isle of Wight may be from Europe’s biggest predator dinosaur

The remains of a large predatory dinosaur have been found on the Isle of Wight.

The bones of a massive spinosaur, a two-legged crocodile-faced beast that lived 125m ago, suggest the land-based hunter measured more than 10 metres from snout to tail.

There was a cliff that fell on to the beach at Compton Bay on the south-west of the Isle of Wight, and researchers found bones in the rock.

According to Dr Neil Gostling, a paleobiologist at the University ofSouthampton, the animal may be the largest predatory dinosaur that has ever been found in Europe. It is straight out of the area.

While dinosaurs were land-based creatures, spinosaurs are known to have spent a lot of time in or near water with fish making up a significant portion of their diet. It's not clear whether they caught fish or scavengers after they washed up.

Chris Barker, a PhD student who led the study, said the animal was huge, though it's too early to say if it's a new species of spinosaur. He said it was a shame it was only known from a small amount of material.

The University ofSouthampton reported the discovery of two new species of spinosaur in 2021.

The evolution of the family of dinosaurs that contains spinosaurs is thought to have begun in Europe about 150 million years ago. The details of the remains, which are on display in the Dinosaur Isle Museum in Sandown, are published in a journal.

The White Rock Spinosaurid was named after the geological layer in which the bones were discovered. Most of the remains were found by a British dinosaur hunter.

The team believes that spinosaurid dinosaurs originated and diversified in western Europe before they became more widespread. He hopes that more remains will show up in time. We haven't given it a formal scientific name because it's only known from fragments

It is believed that the creature became food for scavengers after it died. Jeremy Lockwood, a PhD student at the University of Portsmouth and Natural History Museum, said that the holes in the piece of pelvic bone were the size of a finger.

Thin sections of the dinosaur's bones will be prepared to be examined under a microscope to learn more about the dinosaur's age and growth rate.