News
By James Ashworth
First published 19 February 2026
A striking Spinosaurus skull found in the Sahara Desert has been named a new species.
With a large sword-shaped crest on its head, Spinosaurus mirabilis would have been able to attract mates and compete with rivals.
Astonishing’ fossils discovered in Niger have been identified as a new species of Spinosaurus.
When a scientific expedition first encountered scimitar-shaped bones in the Sahara Desert, they weren’t sure what to make of them. Further research revealed that they belonged to a previously unknown species which has now been named Spinosaurus mirabilis.
A study published in the journal Science has reveals this 95-million-year-old dinosaur had a distinctive curved crest on top of its head. The scimitar-shaped bones would have been covered in a layer of keratin, similar to the casque of a cassowary, which would have made the crest even longer in life.
Along with a sail running along its back, the crest would have helped S. mirabilis to stand out in the ancient wetlands of north Africa. They might have been used to catch the attention of potential mates, or to scare rivals away from its territory.
Professor Paul Sereno, the lead author of the study, says that the “amazing” find gives an insight into the life of this fish-eating dinosaur.
“I envision Spinosaurus mirabilis as a kind of ‘hell heron’,” Paul says. “It would have 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.”
Dr David Hone, a palaeontologist from Queen Mary University of London who was not involved in the research, welcomed the discovery of these fossils. He added that, while the fossils confirm some theories about the dinosaur, many other questions about Spinosaurus remain open.
“We’ve known that Spinosaurus had a crest and that it lived around water for some time,” explains David. “The difference here is that Spinosaurus mirabilis had a much bigger crest than the previously named species and lived in an area these dinosaurs hadn’t been found in before.”
“Unfortunately, the fossils in this study don’t tell us much more than that about Spinosaurus and its relatives. We need to discover better preserved specimens to find out more about these poorly known dinosaurs.”
How was Spinosaurus mirabilis discovered?
While today the Sahara Desert is among the driest places on Earth, it’s not always been that way. For millions of years during the Cretaceous Period, the portion in Niger would have been covered by a network of rivers that supported a rich forest ecosystem.
Western scientists have known about the region’s fossils since the 1950s, when French geologists looking for uranium came across large bones emerging from the sand at Gadoufaoua. Since then, expeditions to the site have discovered a variety of animals, such as the crocodile-like Sarchosuchus and herbivorous dinosaurs such as Nigersaurus.
Nearby, the geologist Hugues Faure found another fossil site at Akarazeras. He found teeth similar to those of the huge carnivorous dinosaur Carcharodontosaurus, which could grow to more than 12 metres long. However, the remote site was subsequently forgotten about by scientists until the authors of this study mounted a new expedition to the area.
“No one had been back to that tooth site in over 70 years,” Paul recalls. “It was an adventure and a half wandering into the sand seas to search for this locale, and then find an even more remote fossil area with the new species.”
The team were led to a third site, known as Jenguebi, by a local man who had seen fossils in the desert. Subsequent excavations revealed more Carcharodontosaurus fossils, alongside others from titanosaurs, fish and the remains of Spinosaurus mirabilis.
The shape of the dinosaur’s head, as well as its interlocking teeth, mean that researchers are fairly certain that S. mirabilis ate fish. While some scientists have suggested Spinosaurus might have dived after its prey, analysis of the dinosaur’s shape suggests that it probably hunted fish from the shoreline or waded into the water instead.
Less certain is the dinosaur’s overall size, as all known specimens of S. mirabilis aren’t fully grown. The researchers estimate that the dinosaur was probably around eight metres long when it died, but that it could have grown substantially bigger.
It’s one of the many puzzles that continue to perplex scientists working to understand Spinosaurus.
The ongoing mystery of the spinosaurs
While Spinosaurus has become famous thanks to its unusual appearance and starring role in Jurassic Park III, surprisingly little is known about this animal or its relatives.
The original species, Spinosaurus aegypticus, was named by Ernst Stromer in 1915 and its fossils later went on display at the Paläontologisches Museum München. Unfortunately, during a bombing raid in World War Two these fossils were destroyed.
This caused research into spinosaurs to grind to a halt. It wasn’t until the 1980s when it really kicked off again following the discovery of Baryonyx in the UK. Around a fifth of the skeleton was discovered, providing new insights that helped to reignite interest in the spinosaurs.
A number of new spinosaur species, such as Suchomimus, were subsequently named in the years that followed. In 2014, this culminated in a newly discovered Spinosaurus aegypticus skeleton from Morocco, which was used as the new type specimen for the species.
Spinosaurus mirabilis now adds a few more pieces to the jigsaw, but questions still remain about the spinosaurs. The skeletons of many species are often fragmentary and incomplete, meaning that some basic details of what these dinosaurs looked like are still unknown.
Specimens do exist that could resolve this puzzle, but Dave says that they’ve not yet been fully investigated by scientists.
“We’ve known that there are more complete skeletons of spinosaurs out there, sometimes for decades, but these fossils haven’t been studied in depth,” he concludes. “It’s fairly basic science, but it would go a long way to improving our understanding of these animals.”
“Getting these spinosaur skeletons studied would probably answer many of the questions we have about some of the most obscure and least known groups of dinosaurs.”
