Remains of Europe’s largest dinosaur unearthed on the Isle of Wight

Europe’s largest land predator unearthed the Isle of Wight confirmed the  Natural History Museum on Thursday, June 9

New research by a team of scientists, including PhD student Jeremy Lockwood from the Natural History Museum, has identified the remains of one of Europe’s largest-ever land-based hunter, a dinosaur that measured over 10m long and lived around 125 million years ago.

The remains comprising of several bones uncovered on the Isle of Wight, on the south coast of England, and now housed at Dinosaur Isle Museum in Sandown, belonged to a type of two-legged, crocodile-faced predatory dinosaur known as spinosaurids. Dubbed the ‘White Rock spinosaurid’ after the geological layer in which it was found.

Chris Barker, PhD student, at the University of Southampton, who led the study said, “This was a huge animal, exceeding 10m in length and probably several tonnes in weight. Judging from some of the dimensions, it appears to represent one of the largest (if not the largest) predatory dinosaur ever found in Europe.”

“It’s a shame it’s only known from a small amount of material, but these are enough to show it was an immense creature.”

The discovery follows previous work on spinosaurids by the Natural History Museum, London, and the University of Southampton, revealing two new species in 2021.

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