Mystery surrounding giant ‘heron from hell’ dinosaur and how it devoured prey finally cracked in new study

A NEW study could finally end a long debate regarding a giant dinosaur known as the “heron from hell.”

The creature’s scientific name is the Spinosaurus aegyptiacus and it’s caused debate for years.

That’s because scientists can’t agree on how the Cretaceous-era dinosaur hunted its prey.

The giant predator is thought to have been one of the largest to walk the Earth.

It ate all sorts of prey and was adapted to hunt in the water.

Whether it dived deep for its meals or stayed very close to the surface is still being debated today.

A team of scientists recently examined bones from a specimen of the Spinosaurus aegyptiacus to try and crack this mystery once and for all.

Paleontologists from the University of Chicago led the research.

The study has now been published in the PLoS ONE journal.

A team of researchers looked into the creature’s bone density and found it wouldn’t have been good at diving.

Modern aquatic animals tend to have dense bones that help they stay under the water.

These bones are said to act like a scuba diver’s weight belt.

Some dinosaurs, including the Spinosaurus, have air sacs inside their bones that help them avoid submerging.

For this reason, the team suspects the dinosaur stayed in shallow waters.

“We think Spinosaurus, one of the largest predatory animals ever to have evolved, needed extra bone strength to support its weight on its relatively short hind limbs,” senior author Paul Sereno explained.

“Spinosaurus was able to wade into waterways more than six feet deep without floating, where it could ambush fish of any size with its claws and jaws—but all while keeping its toes firmly anchored in the mud.”