Isle of Wight dinosaur ‘may be largest land predator to roam Europe’

The remains of what may be the largest predatory dinosaur ever found in Europe have been unearthed on the Isle of Wight.

Paleontologists say the huge crocodile-faced dinosaur — which at 10 meters in length is almost as big as a London bus — lived 125 million years ago and would have weighed several tons.

The “giant killer” was a member of the spinosaurids, the first dinosaurs known to swim, and thus may have been able to hunt both in water and on land.

It would have lived at the beginning of a period of rising sea levels, stalking lagoon waters and sandbars in search of food.

Several prehistoric bones belonging to the ‘White Rock spinosaurid’ – so named because of the geological layer in which the remains were found, have been discovered on the island off the south coast of England.

They include huge pelvic and tail vertebrae and have since been analyzed by scientists at the University of Southampton.

PhD student Chris Barker said: ‘This was a huge animal, over 10 meters long and probably several tons in weight.

“Judging from some of its dimensions, it appears to be one of the largest predatory dinosaurs ever found in Europe — perhaps even the largest known to date.

“Too bad that only a small amount of material is known, but this is enough to show that it was an immense creature.”

The remains were found by dinosaur hunter Nick Chase, who has since passed away, near Compton Chine, on the southwest coast of the Isle of Wight in the geological structure Vectis Formation, and are now on display at the Dinosaur Isle Museum in Sandown.

dr. Neil Gostling, corresponding author of the study published in the journal PeerJ, said: ‘Unusually, this specimen eroded from the Vectis formation, which is notoriously poor in dinosaur fossils.

“It is probably the youngest spinosaur material known to date from the UK.”

Co-author Darren Naish said: “This new animal supports our earlier argument – published last year – that spinosaurid dinosaurs originated and diversified in western Europe before they became more widespread.

“As it is known only from fragments at this time, we have not given it a formal scientific name,” added Mr Naish.

‘We hope that even more remains will turn up in due course.’

The scientists suggest that tracks on the bone, including small tunnels bored into a piece of pelvis, show that the giant dinosaur’s body would have been plucked by scavengers and decomposers after it died.

Co-author Jeremy Lockwood, a doctoral student at the University of Portsmouth and the Natural History Museum, said: ‘We think they were caused by bone-eating larvae of a species of scavenger beetle.

“It’s an interesting thought that this giant killer became a meal for a large number of insects.”

The researchers hope to look at microscopic internal properties of the bones in the near future, which could provide information about the dinosaur’s growth rate and possible age.

The largest known spinosaurid is Spinosaurus, which dwarfed even the fearsome T. rex.

An animal’s behavior is difficult to guess from fossils; but based on its skeleton, some scientists have suggested that Spinosaurus could swim, while others think it simply waded in the water like a heron.

A new study published in March this year claimed that the dinosaur had dense bones that likely allowed it to hunt underwater.

Researchers at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois came to their conclusion after studying the density of spinosaurid bones and comparing them to other animals such as penguins, hippos and alligators.

The new discovery is published in the journal PeerJ Life & Environment†