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White Rock spinosaurid
Whiterock2
Reconstruction of Vectispinus by Palaeontologica
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebra
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: Theropoda
Family: Spinosauridae
Genus: "Vectispinus"
Chris T. Barker et al., 2022
Type species
"White Rock spinosaurid" (Nomen nudum)
Chris T. Barker et al., 2022

The "White Rock spinosaur" is a genus of large spinosaurid from the Early Cretaceous that lived in what is now the Vectis Formation of the Isle of Wight in England. It is also alternatively called "Vectispinus", though this name for the genus isn't official.[1] This large spinosaurid theropod has no formal name attented specifically towards it.

History[]

The spinosaurid's fossils were discovered by the a local collector Nick Chase, who gave the specimens to Jeremy Lockwood when he was ill, asking him to describe and publish them. It is estimated exceed 10 meters in length, which is very large for a baryonychine. Thomas R. Holtz Jr. agrees with the conclusions presented by the study despite being uninvolved. It is from the Vectis Formation, a Barremian-Aptian formation that is the youngest of the Wealden Supergroup, with this individual dating to ~125 million years, which was the inspiration for its proposed name.[2]

At discovery, it was the youngest spinosaurid from Britain, which the describers hope to be diagnostic enough to name. Matrix on the remains suggest that they were unearthed during a single cliff-fall. During press runs from Barker et al. (2021)'s publication, they teased additional spinosaurid fragments at the exposition. Darren Naish posted them to his Twitter with the remains censored.

Description[]

It is known from an anterior dorsal, 2 fused sacrals (IWCMS 2018.30.2), an anterior caudal (IWCMS 2018.30.3), fragmented ribs, pelves parts, long bone fragments and some additional vertebral material. They are all exceptionally large, indicating such a large size, and a combination of size consistency and close proximity suggest that they are of the same individual. The initial describers knew that the remains were of a tetanuran when work first started based on the bones being pneumatic, opisthocoelus form on the anterior caudal, laminae and the possible posterior ilium part has a brevis fossa.

They ruled our identification as a sauropod based on a plethora of morphological traits, using synapomorphies such as 'webbing' at the base of the neural spine (unique to Spinosauridae) and a flat ring at the anterior articular face (unique to Megalosauroidea). They did not find any specific traits that indicate that it is from an already-named genus and, at some times, considered the name "Vectispinus", but did not because there are no autapomorphies and it is fragmentary.

Vectispinusremains

The remains of the White Rock spinosaurid (silhouette by Dan Folkes)

The vertebral centra are ~16 centimeters long, on par with or larger than Spinosaurus.

The size of the White Rock spinosaurid can only be roughly scaled, due its extremely fragmentary remains. "Vectispinus" was likely up to 10.7 to 13.1 meters in length[3] with a mass of around 5.4 tonnes, making it the second largest known spinosaurid and probably the largest known theropod of throughout the europe ( only potentially rivaled by a gigantic french megalosaurid premaxilla; that is belonging to an unknown and unnamed genus. Referred as: Unnamed Spanish Megalosaurid ). Its original vertebrae is comperable to The Spinosaurus itself as cited by paleontologists! [4][5]

Classification[]

The presence of centrodiapophyseal lamina, prezygodiapophyseal lamina and deep prezygocentrodiapophyseal fossa suggest spinosaurine affinities, which would match with the massive size. They modified Barker et al. (2021)'s dataset to include this taxon, and is sometimes recovered as a spinosaurine and other times is outside of any subfamily.

Paleoecology & Notes[]

It was contemporaneous with Mantellisaurus, Polacanthus, and Iguanodon but ichnites and the possibility of new discovery suggest a much more diverse ecosystem. This environment would have had many narrow river channels meeting a lagoon.

Based from the available fossil records of spinosaurid groups, both Baryonychidae and Spinosaurinae. It was more of a generalist with being prone to hunt marine animals. It more than likely had a highly opportunistic diet, considering its larger side; with occasional scavenging. Evidence for more generalist carnivorous diet in Spinosauridae; both Spinosaurinae and in this case; Baryonychinae; is clearly available in the case of both Baryonyx and Iberospinus. Both of these theropods are found to consume both marine animals and medium sized dinosaurs; such as Iguanodontids.[6][7]

Given the fragmentary specimens it could have been a suitable generalist carnivore because it was the Largest known theropod of its environment. Its size would have made it quite intimidating and prone to bullying other theropods off their kills; akin to a kleptpparasite. In its habitat only a very few predators; if any; would be challenging towards Vectispinus. Perhaps no prevalent competition existed for this particular theropod in its era and habitat due to sheer mass and size this theropod had compared to all other theropods of its area.

Sources[]

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