When most people think of giant predatory dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex often comes to mind.
But the largest predator of all time was Spinosaurus, which lived in North Africa around 95 million years ago and could grow up to 18 meters long.
Now, new research suggests that the roots of these enormous hunters lie not in Africa, but in Europe.
An international team led by Oliver Rauhut, a paleontologist at the Bavarian State Collection of Paleontology and Geology, has been studying fossils of a lesser-known dinosaur called Camarillasaurus cirugedae.
These fossils were found in the Spanish province of Teruel and date back about 128 million years to the Lower Cretaceous period.
The team’s findings, published in Palaeontologia Electronica, reveal that this Spanish predator was a close relative of the later African spinosaurs, suggesting that the giant predators first evolved in Europe before spreading to other regions.
The story of Camarillasaurus is a case of mistaken identity. When its first fragmentary remains were described over a decade ago, scientists classified it as a ceratosaur, a group of predatory dinosaurs rarely seen in Europe.
This interpretation raised doubts, since ceratosaurs were not expected to appear in Spain at that time.
During a new excavation at the original site, Rauhut and his colleagues uncovered more fossil material, including parts of the jaw, tail vertebrae, a tooth, a thigh bone, and a foot claw. These new finds allowed them to re-examine the dinosaur’s family tree.
The key turned out to be the lower jawbone, which showed distinct similarities to other spinosaurs.
The new evidence clearly places Camarillasaurus within the spinosaur family, linking it to the massive species that would later dominate North Africa.
Rauhut explains that phylogenetic analyses—studies of evolutionary relationships—show that several other spinosaur fossils from the Iberian Peninsula also fit into this evolutionary line. This suggests that the ancestors of Africa’s spinosaurs originated in Europe before migrating south.
Fossils of spinosaurs, especially teeth, are relatively common in Spain, often found in continental deposits that point to a land-based lifestyle.
This contrasts with the North African Spinosaurus, which has recently been interpreted as a semi-aquatic dinosaur adapted to hunting fish and living much of its life in water. So far, there is no evidence from Spain to suggest that European spinosaurs shared these water-loving habits.
The discovery of Camarillasaurus adds an important piece to the puzzle of dinosaur evolution. It not only redefines the identity of a once-misunderstood predator but also reshapes our understanding of where some of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs in history came from.
Instead of emerging directly in Africa, these colossal hunters may have had their evolutionary roots in Europe, highlighting just how interconnected the prehistoric world really was.
