New ‘scimitar-crested’ Spinosaurus species discovered in the central Sahara
February 23, 2026
A new paper published in Science describes the discovery of Spinosaurus mirabilis, a new spinosaurid species found in Niger. A 20-person team led by Paul Sereno, PhD, Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago, unearthed the find at a remote locale in the central Sahara, adding important new fossil finds to the closing chapter of spinosaurid evolution.
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Photo credit: KLadzinski
Sheathed bony head crests in extinct and living dinosaurs.
S. mirabilis sp. nov., evolved the tallest head crest of any theropod dinosaur, drawing attention to the midline ornamentation that characterizes the cranium and axial skeleton of all spinosaurids. In life, the crest would have been extended to some degree by a keratinous sheath, as in the living helmeted guinea fowl (Numida meleagris). Visual signaling, as is the case in guinea fowl and other crested avians, was likely the function of spinosaurid cranial crests and trunk and tail sails. Scale bar, 20 cm for S. mirabilis and 3 cm for N. meleagris.
FLESH RENDERING AND LAYOUT BY DANI NAVARRO; ADULT SKULL CAST BY THE FOSSIL LAB; HELMETED GUINEA FOWL IMAGES BY TODD GREEN
Fig. 1. Locality of S. mirabilis sp. nov. in Niger. (A) Location of the fossil areas Jenguebi, Gadoufaoua, and Iguidi (In Abangharit) and the stratotype sections of the Echkar and Farak Formations. (B) Drone photograph of the Sirig Taghat locality in the Jenguebi area showing the associated hind leg of a partial skeleton of a large unnamed titanosaurian. (C) Stratigraphic section (left) of the Farak Formation in the vicinity of the type locality for S. mirabilis with a map of key specimens from the lowermost 60 cm. Also shown in an ~8- to 9-m upsection is an associated carcharodontosaurid skeleton collected nearby. A map (right) of the central exposure at Sirig Taghat shows the proximity of the largebodied fauna (dashed circle, 450 m diameter). c, Carcharodontosaurus sp.; cl, clay; Fe, femur; Fi, fibula; fs, fine sand; ms, medium sand; p, unnamed polypterid; r, unnamed rebbachisaurid; s, S. mirabilis; si, silt; t, unnamed titanosaurian; Ti, tibia; vfs, very fine sand
Two Spinosaurus mirabilis sp. spar over a coelacanth carcass on a forested riverbank some 95 million years ago in what is now the central Sahara Desert in Niger. A scimitar-shaped head crest and interdigitating tooth rows characterize this wading giant, one of the last known surviving species of a spinosaurid radiation about 50 million years in the making.