Scientists discover new 15-metre water-loving dinosaur скачать в хорошем качестве

Scientists discover new 15-metre water-loving dinosaur

(11 Sep 2014) Picture the fearsome creatures of "Jurassic Park" crossed with the shark from "Jaws" ... Then super-size to the biggest predator ever to roam Earth ... Now add a crocodile snout as big as a person and feet like a duck's ... Complement with a long neck, strong clawed forearms, powerful jaws and the dense bones of a penguin... The result gives you some idea of a bizarre dinosaur scientists unveiled Thursday. This patchwork of giants, a 50-foot (15 metres) predator, is the only known dinosaur to have lived much of its life in the water. The beast, called Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, was already known to scientists from a long-ago fossil discovery, but most of those bones were destroyed during World War II when the British RAF accidentally bombed Munich's palaeontology museum in 1944. Now, 70 years later, a new skeleton, found in Morocco, revealed that the beast was far more aquatic than originally thought. The creature propelled itself in water with flat feet that were probably webbed, according to a study released on Thursday by the journal 'Science'. The animal sported a spiny sail on its back that was seven feet (two metres) tall when it lived 95 million years ago. "It's like working on an extra-terrestrial or an alien," study lead author Nizar Ibrahim of the University of Chicago said, whilst standing next to a room-sized reconstruction of the skeleton at the National Geographic Society. Scientists had thought that all dinosaurs stayed on land, with occasional brief trips into the water. But the new skeleton shows clear evidence of river and lake living: hip bones like a whale's, dense bones that allowed it to dive for food, and nostrils positioned high on the skull, allowing Spinosaurus to mostly submerge. "We call that a semi-aquatic animal that could go on land like all of its predecessors, the predatory dinosaurs, but from head to tail it is showing signs of adaptation for a water loving life," said Paul Sereno, a professor at the University of Chicago. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...