Had a bit of a surprise at lunchtime, when I got around to reading today’s Chicago Tribune. On the front page was a fascinating article about the new Spinosaurus discoveries announced today. It’s a topic of local interest since lead scientist Paul Sereno is at the University of Chicago. And also, giant aquatic dinosaur. Everybody loves a giant aquatic dinosaur. Apparently this Spinosaurus beastie is the largest predator ever, bigger than a T.rex, even. (Well, longer, anyway. It probably weighed about the same.)
As instructed, I turned to page 11 to read more, where I found this useful infographic. Uh oh. Good job hiding in those underwater caves, ancient coelacanths! We’re glad some of you survived to the present day, while the scary Spinosaurus is buried in Morocco and is also coming to PBS. The Spinosaurus discoveries will be featured on Nova the first week in November. The coelacanths are smug about this, since they starred in the Ancient Creatures of the Deep episode of the same program way back in January 2003, while still not extinct.
(infographic from Chicago Tribune, September 12, 2014, section 1, page 11. Data from the University of Chicago. Spinosaurus art by Davide Bonadonna.)