Fossils of a new species of huge dinosaur Spinosaurus unearthed in Niger
Source: Reuters
-At a remote and barren Sahara desert site in Niger, scientists have unearthed fossils of a new species of Spinosaurus, among the biggest of the meat-eating dinosaurs, notable for its large blade-shaped head crest and jaws bearing interlocking teeth for snaring slippery fish.
It prowled a forested inland environment and strode into rivers to catch sizable fish like a modern-day wading bird - a "hell heron," as one of the researchers put it, considering it was about 40 feet (12 meters) long and weighed 5-7 tons.
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Along with the existing genus name Spinosaurus, meaning "spine lizard," the researchers gave it the species name mirabilis, meaning "astonishing," referring to its crest. A genus is a group of closely related species bearing similar traits. For example, lions and tigers are the same genus but different species.
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The two Spinosaurus species, which were contemporaneous, shared the same general body plan including long dorsal spines forming the sail-like structure and a skull adapted for hunting fish. The crest of Spinosaurus mirabilis is much larger compared to Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, and it has a more elongated snout, teeth more spread out from each other and longer hind limbs.
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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/science/fossils-new-species-huge-dinosaur-spinosaurus-unearthed-niger-2026-02-19/
news.uchicago.edu/story/hell-h...
— Stephanie Baumgart, PhD 🦖🦆 (@stephanopteryx.bsky.social) 2026-02-19T20:06:59.555Z
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It's probably better to call it a "previously unknown" or "undiscovered" species.
but, more correctly, fossil of new dinosaur discovered ... well, newly discovered, not new fossil ... but you know ...
Whenever I see a headline about "new dinosaur discovered" I have a brief (what I call) "Calvin & Hobbes" moment, after a cartoon the details of which I can't recall right now ... I had a similar experience, though, IRL when I saw a newspaper article about a UC professor who kept dozens of spiders in her office -- leaving me with the impression that this was a wildly, crazy cool professor -- only to be quickly disillusioned when further reading revealed the spiders were confined in separate containers, not free to roam the office, as the headline of the article seemed to suggest. 
Hard not to feel a little letdown from such misleadingly worded articles.
I'm a little disappointed to see there was no attempt to address the issue of sexual dimorphism -- could this "new species" be the female of the species already known ?? Surely that's come up in discussions within the paleontological community; it would be nice to know what the current opinions are.
For those who have access to Science: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adx5486
