A one-horned Spinosaurus was found in the Sahara

But there was something that did Saint Mirabilis is different from S. aegyptiacus. The word “mirabilis” in the name of the newly discovered Spinosaurus translates to “amazing” in Latin. What Sereno’s team found astonishing was the prominent crest on the animal’s head, one of the largest we’ve ever discovered.

Pala crown

Instead, a jagged, grooved ridge appears S. aegyptiacus, Saint Mirabilis it had a blade-shaped, crotch-like bony crest that curved up and back from the nose, reaching a high peak above the eyes. This structure was composed of solid bone, unlike the highly porous, pneumatic helmets found in some modern birds. However, the bone itself was etched with fine longitudinal striations and deep grooves, indicating that the bone core was merely a foundation.

Along with a model of what the newly discovered cranial spike might look like in a living animal.

In one residence Saint Mirabilisthis mound would have been covered with a keratinized shell and considerably elongated as the living growth developed by the modern. helmeted guinea fowls. If a full grown adult, a single bone core will be about 40 centimeters long; it could easily cross half a meter with its keratinous shell. For Sereno, the purpose of this “stunning” pala crown was similar to the crests worn by cranes and birds today. “It was asymmetrical. It varied between individuals. So I think it was just for show,” Sereno explains.

His team hypothesizes that visual signaling was a primary function of both skull crests and the massive trunk and tail sails that defined spinosaurs. On crowded shorelines and riverbanks, a tall, brightly colored crest or sail would be a great way to communicate size, maturity, and genetic compatibility to rivals and potential mates without getting into an expensive physical fight.

When it happens again, Saint Mirabilis weighing more than 7 tons, it can fully fight. “Spinosaurus was huge. I think it could have eaten anything it wanted, even though its mainstay was fish,” Sereno said.

Crocodile jaw

Aside from the showpiece on his forehead, Saint Mirabilis was a highly specialized killing machine. Its snout has a low profile with parallel dorsal and ventral edges ending in a mushroom-shaped expansion at the tip. The upper and lower jaws allowed perfect interdigitation of the teeth—there was a noticeable diastema, a gap, in the upper tooth row that neatly accommodated the large teeth of the lower jaw. The Saint Mirabilis jaw structure similar to that of modern long-nosed crocodilians, optimized for capturing and trapping aquatic prey with a rapid, trap-like closure. surprisingly Saint Mirabilis showed a larger gap between the teeth in the back half of his nose compared to S. aegyptiacus although almost identical.