About this episode

This episode explores a new discovery regarding Spinosaurus and its adaptations for life in salty coastal environments.

🦖🌊 For over a century, Spinosaurus has been one of the most controversial dinosaurs ever discovered. Was it a shoreline hunter? A giant river predator? A semi-aquatic dinosaur? Or something even stranger? Now, a new discovery may have added one of the strongest pieces of evidence yet that Spinosaurus was adapted for life in salty coastal environments: Salt glands. The same kind of biological adaptation seen in seabirds, marine reptiles, and animals that regularly deal with high-salinity environments. And if scientists are right… this changes the Spinosaurus debate yet again. 🎥 In this video, we explore: 🌊 What salt glands actually do 🦖 The new anatomical evidence found in spinosaur skulls 🧠 Why this discovery matters for the aquatic Spinosaurus debate 🐊 How Spinosaurus compares to crocodiles and marine animals 🏝️ The ancient coastal ecosystems of North Africa ⚔️ The ongoing identity crisis surrounding Spinosaurus 🔥 The newly discussed “Hell Heron” spinosaur material 📚 Papers & Sources Mentioned: • “Avian-like salt glands in Spinosauridae” — Andrea Cau et al. (Historical Biology, 2026) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2026.2669954 • “The earliest…

People in this episode

Host: Erik Crawford

Topics covered

• Spinosaurus
• salt glands
• aquatic adaptations
• ancient ecosystems
• dinosaur anatomy
• marine reptiles

Keywords

• Spinosaurus
• salt glands
• dinosaur discovery
• aquatic adaptations
• North Africa
• Hell Heron
• marine reptiles

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Hell Heron

Books & works: Avian-like salt glands in Spinosauridae, The earliest evidence for a supraorbital salt gland in dinosaurs in new Early Cretaceous ornithurines

Places: North Africa

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