The NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts continues its National Geographic Live speaker series, with paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim presenting his findings on the Spinosaurus on Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m. The National Geographic Live is an ongoing four-part speaker series, with two more National Geographic explorers set to present their findings at NYU early next year.
Ibrahim is a German/Moroccan paleontologist who scours the deserts of Northern Africa for clues of the remains of creatures who lived in the area, about 95 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. His fascination with paleontology and all things prehistoric began when he was a young boy in Germany, and even from the age of 5, he knew that he wanted to devote his life and career to studying history from millions of years ago.
Photo: National Geographic
Though he has made other discoveries, a focal point of Ibrahim’s career was when he discovered Spinosaurus, a predator unlike anything else that has ever been found before. According to Ibrahim, one of the most unique (and unusual) features of the Spinosaurus is that it is one of the first discoveries of a truly semi-aquatic dinosaur. When asked if that means Spinosaurus was also a predator on land, Ibrahim says, “It was probably a predator on land as well, it wasn’t like a whale or a dolphin that was fully aquatic. But it is a really bizarre creature, and the story of Spinosaurus is one of the great mysteries of the dinosaur world.”
In addition, one of the more shocking qualities of the animal is that scientists believe that is was even bigger than the T-Rex. Spinosaurus also boasted jaws like a crocodile and a massive sail on its back that made it a true aquatic powerhouse. Though Ibrahim and his team know more about the species since discovering its remains, there are still numerous unanswered to questions.
Artist’s conception of spinosaurus swimming. Credit: Davide Bonadonna
“We have a much better understanding of this animal, but there’s still many things we don’t know. For example, how much time did it really spend on land, how did it move around on land, these are all things we’ve been working on, but remember this isn’t T-Rex so we don’t have thousands of skeletons to use as reference,” Ibrahim says.
Though making history with his discoveries, Ibrahim says the journey to find Spinosaurus was “much more than paleontology stories…it was something you would expect to see in an adventure film.”
Inspired by another paleontologist, Ernst Stromer, who made the initial discovery of Spinosaurus nearly a century earlier, Ibrahim recalls what the journey was like for him. Stromer’s Spinosaurus findings made him famous in the early 1900s, but his discovery was destroyed during WWII when Allied forces bombed Munich. Ibrahim describes going through Stromer’s old manuscripts, and even going as far as tracking down living relatives to find out more information about his work. Combined with research and tracking down local fossil traders and dealers, Ibrahim was able to track down the remains of Spinosaurus.
In 2008 while he was in Erfoud, Morocco, a local fossil dealer presented Ibrahim with dinosaur bones embedded in rock, that featured a unique milk-white cross section. Not thinking much of it, Ibrahim offered to buy the bones anyway. Fast forward to a year later when he was in Milan when researchers showed him a huge partial skeleton they had bought off of a fossil dealer. Ibrahim knew the remains were of Spinosaurus, and he recognized the cross section seen in these remains, identical to ones he had bought off the man in Erfoud a year earlier.
Nizar examining fossil in Morocco. Credit: Kat Keene Hogue
“I realized the bones I’d bought in Erfoud must be Spinosaurus—that odd flat bone was a piece of spine,” Ibrahim remembers. If so, he could pinpoint the exact location to where the remains were found, thus uncovering one of paleontology’s largest mysteries.
“I would have to track down this Moroccan man who had originally shown me the first few bones. But we really didn’t know anything about this man. I had met him for a few minutes, didn’t have his phone number or his name, or anything,” Ibrahim recalls. “I just had a mental image of his face in my head. But to go and search for one person in the Sahara was a crazy idea, but I can be pretty stubborn. So I traveled back to Morocco [in 2013] looking for this man, and no one really knew who we were talking about, so [my team and I] were close to giving up, and we were sitting at a café when the man we were looking for walked by. We couldn’t believe it!”
The man confirmed that he had found the remains, and eventually led Ibrahim and his team to the location — about an hour north of Erfoud — to the site. There, they found what they had been looking for, and picked up where Stromer’s legacy left off.
Spinosaurus model. Credit: Tyler Keillor, Lauren Conroy, University of Chicago
With the help of 21st century technology, Ibrahim and his team were able to put together a life-sized model of what Spinosaurus may have looked like. They scanned all of the bones they had discovered, and then added other body parts by scanning digital photos from museums in Milan, Paris and elsewhere, as well as images from Stromer’s sketches and findings.
“In the end, we got to combine our paleontology with cutting edge technology when we put together our dinosaur. We reconstructed the skeleton on the computer, and ended up 3-D printing and machining the skeleton life size,” Ibrahim says.
The Spinosaurus findings were made into an exhibit, which was on display in Washington D.C. at the National Geographic Museum until April of this year. As for what’s next for Ibrahim, he is continuing his research work of Spinosaurus in the Sahara, as well as research projects on flying reptiles (pterodactyls).
“They are really incredible animals, I think in the old days we used to think of them as these kind of slightly awkward, primitive, leathery-winged creatures,” Ibrahim says. “It turns out that they were incredibly efficient and elegant flyers, and they included some of the very largest flying creatures our planet has ever seen, with wingspans over 30 feet.”
“There’s still a lot left to discover…for me, this is the most satisfying thing for me to do intellectually because ultimately what we’re doing as paleontologists, is piecing together the greatest story out there: the history of life on our planet,” Ibrahim says.
Check out a preview of Ibrahim’s findings here:
-by Jackie Hart
