Specifications
Description
Mined from: Kem Kem Beds, near Taouz, Errachidia Province, Drâa-Tafilalet Region, Sahara Desert, Morocco
Era: Mesozoic
Geological Age: Late Cretaceous, Cenomanian 100.5 to 93.9 mya
Spinosaurus aegyptiacus was named in 1915 by the German palaeontologist Ernst Stromer, from a partial skeleton that the collector Richard Markgraf found in 1912 in the Bahariya Oasis of western Egypt. That skeleton was the only indisputable specimen of the species. It was destroyed on the night of 24–25 April 1944, when a bombing raid on Munich hit the museum that housed it, and only Stromer's notes, drawings and photographs survived.
Nearly a century later, Nizar Ibrahim and colleagues described a new partial Spinosaurus skeleton from the Kem Kem beds of southeastern Morocco, published in Science in September 2014. Comparing it with Stromer's surviving records, they concluded that Spinosaurus was at least partly aquatic, the first dinosaur known with such adaptations. Its nostrils sat far back on the skull, its hindlimbs were short, and its limb bones were solid, which would have helped with buoyancy control in water.
The Kem Kem beds form desert cliffs in the Moroccan Sahara. In the Cretaceous the area was part of a large river system, home to large sharks, coelacanths, lungfish and crocodile-like animals, along with giant flying reptiles and predatory dinosaurs.
This one of a kind Spinosaurus fossil claw fossil has a strong, hooked profile with a thicker base that tapers into a narrower point. The surface shows natural variation in tan, beige, and darker brown tones, along with visible cracking, wear, and mineral staining that give it an honest fossil look rather than an overworked polished finish. It has good shape for display, with the curve and thickness making it immediately recognizable as a predatory dinosaur claw.
The Kem Kem beds are famous for producing spinosaurid material, including isolated bones from large predatory dinosaurs that lived in a river and floodplain system. Published work on Spinosaurus notes large forelimbs and manual unguals that were less recurved than in some earlier spinosaurids, and those claws were interpreted as likely useful in gripping or gaffing prey. More recent work also confirms that spinosaurine theropods are among the major dinosaur groups represented in the Kem Kem Group, though isolated material from the region should be treated with some caution at the species level.
Spinosaurus fossils are often linked with power, focus, and survival in difficult conditions. People are usually drawn to them as symbols of raw instinct, persistence, and ancient strength, especially when the piece has a natural, untamed look like this one.
Quantity: 1pc
With this product, you will get the actual stone in the photograph. We do what we can to buy good quality products and price them honestly. The rocks may differ from the photos, but we hope we do them justice.