if you’re ever looking for some spicy drama in the paleontology world, spinosaurus is the dinosaur to follow. not only do scientists keep disagreeing about every conceivable aspect of the dino, but it seems like every few months there’s some big new discovery that completely rewrites everything we thought we knew about it and adds more fuel to the fire.

we once thought spino was basically just a fat t-rex with a sail on its back, then a giant bipedal murder-crocodile (like in jurassic park 3), then a knuckle-walking fish-eater, and now a bipedal ambush-predator who likes to take the occassional cruise down the river. that paddle-like tail was only discovered in early 2020, and we still don’t even know what the purpose of the giant sail on its back was.

i can only assume scientists have a “no talking about spinosaurus” policy every christmas dinner.