Scientists have long believed that dinosaurs only lived on land. Now, strange dinosaur bones found in Morocco may prove them wrong.

The 95-million-year-old dinosaur is known as Spinosaurus aegyptiacus. New evidence shows it spent much of its life in water.

Spinosaurus dinosaurs have been known about for years. It now seems that scientists didn't really understand what they were like.

"It was not a balancing, two-legged animal on land," said scientist Paul Sereno. "It would have been something very peculiar."

A Fish-Eating Dinosaur

At 50 feet long, Spinosaurus was likely the largest meat-eating dinosaur ever. It was nine feet longer than Tyrannosaurus rex.

Spinosaurus had a mouth and teeth that were perfect for snapping at fish. Its small nostrils were far up on its head. Having them there let Spinosaurus stick its nose in the water and still breathe.

It had strong arms with sharp claws to catch slippery fish. Its shorter legs weren't really designed to walk well on land. Its feet were wide and flat. They might even have been webbed.

Spinosaurus had a bony "sail" on its back, which stayed above the water as it swam. The spiny sail helped it glide through the water.

A Box Of Fossils

The first Spinosaurus dinosaur was discovered in Egypt in 1912. It was carefully studied by German scientist Ernst Stromer.

Stromer took the skeleton with him back to Germany. But the bones were destroyed during World War II. Except for the drawings Stromer made, all evidence of the discovery was lost.

The story didn't end there. It was picked up 60 years later by Nizar Ibrahim.

Ibrahim is a paleontologist - that is, a scientist who studies the history of life before humans. He studies ancient bones known as fossils.

In 2008 Ibrahim went to Morocco to search for fossils. One day, a man approached him with a cardboard box.

Inside the box were ancient bones. One was a strange fossil shaped like a blade. It had a red line running through it.

Looking For The Mystery Man

Sometime later, Ibrahim visited a museum in Italy. Scientists there told him about some strange fossils in the museum basement. They said the bones had been sent from Morocco.

"My jaw dropped," Ibrahim said. Among the bones were several like those he already had: strange blade-shaped fossils with the same red line.

Ibrahim thought that his bones and the ones in Italy came from the same animal.

Ibrahim wanted to find the man with the box. He didn't know his name. All he could remember was the town he lived in and that the man had a mustache.

Ibrahim returned to Morocco. There he searched for the mystery man, with no luck. He was just about to give up when a familiar-looking man walked by.

Sure enough, it was the man with the mustache.

Finding More Bones

The man took him to the spot where he had found the fossils. To Ibrahim's excitement, even more Spinosaurus bones were there.

Ibrahim also traveled to Germany. There, Stromer's granddaughter gave him Stromer's sketches of the Egyptian skeleton.

Ibrahim now had Stromer's drawings and the bones from Italy and Morocco to work with. He could put together a model of the Spinosaurus skeleton.

It was that model which led to Ibrahim's groundbreaking discovery: Spinosaurus had spent much of its life in water.]]> fossils breathe basement sketches approached ancient peculiar evidence discovered glide