Species
Spinosaurus mirabilis
Sereno et al., 2026 · 100.5–93.9 Ma · Cenomanian
The first new species of Spinosaurus described in more than a century, named in February 2026 from material collected in the central Sahara.
It is a sibling of S. aegyptiacus, not a revision of it. The two are separate animals from beds of comparable age, and the crest is what separates them.
DinosauriaSaurischiaTheropodaMegalosauroideaSpinosauridae
How the reconstruction changed
The fossils did not change. The way they were read did.
2026
The scimitar crest
A blade-shaped crest rising along the midline of the skull, together with a lower snout profile and wider spacing of the rear maxillary teeth.
Sereno, P. C. et al. (2026)
What is known, and how
Every claim carries the kind of evidence behind it.
Direct Fossil Evidence
A tall, blade-shaped nasal crest runs along the midline of the skull. It is the feature the species is named for and it is preserved in the fossil material.
Strong Inference
It is a distinct species from S. aegyptiacus rather than a growth stage or a variant of it.
Every statement above is tagged with how it is known, not just what is known. Read the scale
References
- Sereno, P. C. et al. (2026). Scimitar-crested Spinosaurus species from the Sahara caps stepwise spinosaurid radiation. Science 391. 10.1126/science.adx5486