An international team excavating fossil beds in the Sahara desert of Niger has unveiled a spectacular new species of Spinosaurus, ending a drought of more than a hundred years without a fresh member of the group.
The creature was a large, semi-aquatic predator whose lifestyle revolved around hunting fish in ancient river systems.
Its defining trait is an elongated, curved crest that sweeps back from the skull like a sabre, an ornament unlike anything seen in its relatives.
That dramatic profile inspired researchers to christen it the "hell heron", after the wading birds that stalk shallow water today.
By examining the animal's skeleton, palaeontologists can infer how it balanced, swam and snapped up prey along prehistoric shorelines.
The specimen strengthens the growing consensus that several giant theropods were far more aquatic than once assumed.
Crucially, it reminds us that even well-studied lineages can still yield extraordinary surprises from remote, under-explored terrain.