New Spinosaurus Restoration!

[suspsy]

From Thomas Holtz's Facebook:

Hey, paleoartists. Put your pens down and stop drawing Spinosaurus for (checks [non-existent] watch) about five hours.

Trust me on this.

And here it is!

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/spinosaurus-dinosaur-fossil-tail-aquatic-swimmer

[Gwangi]

I just came here to post about this, I saw this in my Facebook feed. Very excited!

[PrimevalRaptor]

It's here:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/04/first-spinosaurus-tail-found-confirms-dinosaur-was-swimming/?fbclid=IwAR0Dg59ESN1HjNJyQXY4gemSKnBxXjYq_f4Plom6MGEXVX408LBLKa34ixs
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2190-3?fbclid=IwAR22ZuYHh1Uzgfal6mwQwWtifVbfgTVEOT6LJwZTZRgLl7xuyGZbXlYOXyo

This is absolutely incredible!
(And I guess Papo wasn't that wrong huh?)

[ITdactyl]

How very prescient of Papo. 

'not trying to be snide though. It's either the sculptor was given information about the weird tail years ago... Or he's just psychic.

*Edit* I'm aware Papo's fish/amphibian tail design still isn't a proper execution of the flattened archosaur tail morph... But it's the closest reconstruction (in toy form) that exists.

[suspsy]

Holy jumping catfish!

[Dinoguy2]

Holy jumping catfish! PAPO WAS RIGHT. 

""This was basically a dinosaur trying to build a fish tail," says National Geographic Emerging Explorer Nizar Ibrahim, the lead researcher examining the fossil."

Lucky guess, or inside info...?

Take a look at the neural spines on that tail. It looks like a more widely-spaced version of a Dimetrodon sail.  The art that goes with NatGeo looks like a ridge, like the sail on the back, but I wonder if the tail would actually look more like a ray-fin, like a sailfish or Dimetrodon.

[MLMjp]

I´m in awe at this.

More Spinosaurus material. More pieces of the puzzle. Another adaptation that we didn't know. And Papo was (short of) right.

This is exciting!

[Flaffy]

Various interpretations of the new tail:




Well I'll be damned, I never would have thought that Papo's version of a dinosaur being the most accurate depiction (in toy form). Nor would I have thought that Papo's speculative liberties would be too conservative compared to the real thing. But yet here we are.
Hopefully someone else will take the title soon.

[Sarapaurolophus]

Nice! I hope we can see the rudder tail in more art and sculptures from now on. But I can already hear the "my childhood!" crew hacking away on their keyboards...

[Kapitaenosavrvs]

This is really exciting. Really, really exciting. I always liked the Idea of the aquatic Spino, moreover i loved the (too short) Papo Tail. But i never thought it could be the real thing. I'm looking forward what comes next in this Spinosaurus adventure.

I just can add my "I never thought that PAPO did this kind of right" Sentence.
There will be loads of shitstorms in the Internet now, i guess. Poor Rebor Spinosaurus. Still outstanding work, of course. This first time i saw the Promopictures, i thought of the JP3 Spino in a more accurate Costume.

[Loon]

Can't say I saw that coming. That's genuinely amazing, and here I was thinking it was going to be something about the posture. This makes me like Spinosaurus even more, it's just so interesting. If CollectA doesn't jump on this, they're out of their minds.

Also, I really hope they open that museum in Morocco. It'd instantly become a place to visit on my bucket list.

[Faelrin]

Wow the more material that becomes available and more research that is done, the more I fall in love with how interesting and unique this animal was.

I also think it is truly interesting how Papo figure was right in a way by giving it the eel like tail. While it still doesn't get everything quite right (such as the proportions of the teeth, and of course the shape of this tail fin thing, etc is a bit off in regards to the now published material), it certainly became that much closer. It's just a shame all of the other models released last year like the Schleich or Safari Ltd ones ended up getting left behind by the new science in this regard (same thing with Safari Ltd's new Edmontosaurus, and then the revelation that it had hooves of some sort).


Here is a direct link to the 3D model included with the paper that is certainly worth taking a look at: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/maquette-07b2b6bf4c464c09bd30daa629f266ff

It's fascinating how close they came to it. I do wonder like other folks here have suggested, that perhaps they had insider info, or they just got very close with their artistic license.

Edit: I can only wonder if it has this sort of adaption, would it have left the water at all to begin with? Is it possible it could have been able to give live birth which other prehistoric marine reptiles have been able to do? Though I take it there isn't much or any evidence supporting that right now?

Edit 2:
@Loon You brought up a great point about the posture. I was too far fascinated with the new tail, that I completely overlooked the bipedal posture it was depicted with. I wonder with this new information surrounding the shape of the tail, and in combination with the sail's shape, it acted as a counter balance with its short legs? There was stuff inside the Nat Geo mentioning the webbed feet briefly as well.

[Loon]

I feel like the tail on the Papo was just speculative, it was a reasonable guess, but still. If they had insider info, one would hope they would've matched this reconstruction more accurately.

Also, that 3D model seems to be bipedal. Is that what the posture is now? I didn't see that in the NatGeo article.

[paintingdinos]

Mmm, delightful. I really enjoyed the new Papo model on its artistic merits alone (the concept of the fish-like tail was cool regardless of accuracy), but having that interpretation somewhat close to actual reality if even more exciting.

Sympathy to those who were so negative about the model's tail specifically 

[Andreioli]

You can see it swimming in this video:

https://gramho.com/media/2298109348260708239

[Doug Watson]

You can see it swimming in this video:

https://gramho.com/media/2298109348260708239

Gee look how the limbs are held especially the rear.....

[SidB]

Noticed that, right away, glancing at my Safari on the shelf.

[ITdactyl]

https://youtu.be/fDhofM81RQE

For those who prefer vids over reading.

[TaranUlas]

Wow, this dinosaur was so much weirder than I could have imagined... and I love it! The only annoying thing right now is that I had skipped the Papo Spinosaurus because I thought that the tail would be inaccurate and at that price I needed high accuracy only for it to turn out to be right and accurate over the other figures I did buy on that. Damn it.

I am curious as to how exactly this animal would have moved around on land if it did go on land. In general, this raises so many questions with Spinosaurus and I absolutely love it.

The posture is what's catching my eye as well. It looks a little funky without that massive tail, but now... I wonder if bipedal is doable without being too awkward.

[Shonisaurus]

I am so glad that the limited version Papo spinosaurus is so accurate based on the latest discoveries. If they had made a scientific giganotosaurus ... Papo's story this year would be quite different.

I never thought spinosaurus was so rare. I am very glad that dinosaurs are being de-dramatized and shown with images according to the latest most feasible discoveries and less of horror movie figures showing dinosaurs as mere monsters as they were in the 70's and early 80's of the century past.

The dinosaurs were neither horrible, nor were they misfit animals, that "black legend" that dinosaurs had was eliminated, they were as beautiful as current mammals and birds of the sky today at least.