Scientists Make Massive Dinosaur Discovery After Epic Sahara Desert Journey

Researchers endured a grueling three-day trek through the remote Sahara Desert to reach an isolated site in northern Niger. Their expedition paid off with the discovery of fossils from Spinosaurus mirabilis, one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs ever found.

A team of paleontologists embarked on an extraordinary expedition deep into the Sahara Desert that resulted in a remarkable dinosaur discovery, following clues from a decades-old scientific paper.

The scientists faced a challenging three-day journey across unforgiving desert landscape in 2022 to reach Jenguebi, an extremely isolated location in northern Niger. The nearest landmark bears the telling name Sirig Taghat, which translates to “no water, no goat” in the local Berber dialect of Tamasheq.

Their persistence was rewarded with the uncovering of fossils belonging to Spinosaurus mirabilis, a massive fish-eating predator that ranks among the largest carnivorous dinosaurs in Earth’s history.

University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno, who led the research expedition, described their destination as “The heart of the Sahara – the most barren, unforgiving, yet beautiful, part of the desert.”

The research team had previously conducted a brief exploratory mission to the area three years prior, departing from the city of Agadez. The Jenguebi site sits hundreds of miles away from any permanent human habitation.

“Jenguebi is extremely remote and isolated, and very hard to get to. It is very far from the closest cities, there are no roads that lead to the area directly, and on top of that, almost nobody – even Tuareg Berber nomads – inhabits it at any given time because of the scarcity of nearby wells,” explained Daniel Vidal, a paleontologist affiliated with both the University of Chicago and Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia in Spain.

Vidal described the arduous logistics of reaching their destination: “It took us almost three whole days of driving off-road to get to the site, with the hardest part in the last day, having to navigate through the sand dunes with a large convoy including a large truck carrying drinking water, supplies and equipment that got stuck in the sand constantly. However, any frustration or exhaustion from this long trip vanished instantly as we arrived and started discovering new fossils in no time.”

The expedition was inspired by a brief mention in a 1950s scientific publication, where a French geologist noted finding a single tooth in the region that resembled specimens from another carnivorous dinosaur species discovered in Egypt’s Western Desert.

Sereno pointed out that no scientific teams had revisited that particular location for more than seventy years.

Vidal painted a picture of the harsh environment: “It is an arid area with sand dunes and barely any vegetation. There is only a single water well that still yields water in the vicinity. But more importantly to us paleontologists, there are large areas with patches of rock outcrop surrounded by extensive dunes, which in satellite images look like an island archipelago surrounded by a sea of dunes, which led to the nickname ‘Spinosaur archipelago.'”

The geological formations proved to be a treasure trove for fossil hunters. “These rocks are very thin and soft sandstone that feels almost like compacted beach sand, and it is very rich in vertebrate fossils, particularly dinosaurs. So rich that we located more than a hundred fossil localities in under two weeks of fieldwork,” Vidal noted.

The scientific team successfully extracted fossils from several Spinosaurus mirabilis specimens, along with remains from various other dinosaur species dating back approximately 95 million years.

“I am amazed by how Spinosaurus mirabilis left people in awe since the moment it was discovered,” Vidal reflected on their remarkable find.