The "Tail" of a Dinosaur

A nearly complete tail fossil of a giant dinosaur, called the SPINOSAURUS, was unearthed in the Moroccan region of Casablanca during an archaeological exploration of the site. Recently published article from on the Nat Geo website sheds some light on the same. Fossils recovered are seen as an important link that can finally clear the mystery-mist cloaked around the habitat of the giant creature. Here are some things concerning the Spinosaurus and of course, the "tail"....

Know Your Dinosaur

The Spinosaurus was a rather large carnivorous dinosaur that lived around 112 to 93.5 million years ago in the cretaceous period. Many of us might remember this giant lizard from the 2001 movie Jurassic Park III, where our spinosaurus goes all-out against probably the most recognizable pre-historic carnivore that ever roamed the earth, none other than the mighty T-REX. Not only that, our fish-hunter eventually came victorious, isn't that cool. Although, the fight scene itself received a lot of criticism, but that's a complete different story.

Latest and most accurate reconstruction, image courtesy:wikimedia

Moving on to the appearance of the spinosaurus, well it ain't no less controversial than the infamous Jurassic park face off. One thing about which there is not controversy is the size of our dinosaur. All the paleontologists, who might disagree on several things regarding the Spinosaurus seems to agree completely on the size of the reptile, which is estimated between 12.6-18 metres (41-59 ft) in length and 7 to 20.9 tonnes (7.7 to 23.0 short tons) in weight, as per the records published in 2005, 2007 and 2008, which makes it the LARGEST THEROPOD EVER. Or in simple terms, the largest meat-eating dinosaur ever. Sorry T-Rex fans, but Spinosaurus wins here, too.

Source:wikipedia
The red one in the above image is our Spinosaurus

The Habitat and the 'Tail'

Apart from the gigantic size, spinosaurus is also known as the only true dinosaur that actually resided in the aquatic habitat. But as mentioned earlier, this statement is a matter has been a subject of debate among the experts. The fraction of experts that were against the notion always cited the 'buoyancy problem' surrounding the dinosaur. Since there were not many specimens to prove, it is safe to state majority of the structure of the dinosaur was actually speculated. And this lack of fossil alibi made it harder to prove that how could such a large animal stay afloat? This is what I call the buoyancy problem of the spinosaurus. The tail of the spinosaurus was considered similar to the tails of its other 'theropodic' cousins, round and tapered. Thanks to the hardworking paleontologists and the recent advancements in technology, a more clear understanding of the structure of the tail was established, which also helped in solving the long-standing buoyancy problem. The tail actually acted a propeller, very similar to the fish fins. In words of the lead Nat Geo Explorer and Paleontologist and member of the team responsible for the unearthing  of the recent tail fossils, Nizar Ibrahim, "Spinosaurus is basically a dinosaur growing a fish tail". The statement couldn't be accurate.

This propelling structure of tail would have allowed the giant to stay afloat not only in shallow waters, but in deeper ones too. The new tail confirmed the aquatic habitat of spinosaurus, affirming the fact that the spinosaurus IS the only true dinosaur to live in fully aquatic habitats.

A reconstruction of Spinosaurus through time, by Matt Dempsey

Brief History and the WWII connection

The credit of the discovery of the our titan goes to the German Paleontologist Ernst F. Stromer. He, with his team, first discovered the dinosaur species in his papers in 1912. The original remains that were kept in a museum in Germany were actually DESTROYED in the bombings of World War II. As stated in the article of Nat Geo, by Michael Greshko, "During World War II, Allied bombing prompted Stromer - a critic of the Nazi regime - to beg the museum director to move the fossils to safety. The Nazi director refused, and bombing destroyed the fossils in 1944. Drawings, photos, and descriptions in journal articles were all that retained to prove Strome's Spinosaurus fossils erev existed". This tragic incident of course prolonged the process of understanding the gigantic dinosaur.

The Team that made it Happen

Apart from the lead member Nizar Ibrahim, many paleontologists and site workers were involved in the process of extracting the fossil intact from the womb of earth. This section of article is specially dedicated to those people and their will power, who not only carried out the delicate process, but they did it in the harsh climate and most of the time, in adverse conditions. Heartfelt respect to those heroes who work hard to bring us the most authentic and valuable knowledge. 

Hope you learned something new today. Feel free to use the comment section.

Thank You : )