The man with the mustache listened closely to Ibrahim. He understood what Ibrahim was trying to do and how important it was. He agreed to lead Ibrahim to the place where he had found the fossils.

The next day, the two men drove a short distance into the Sahara. Then the fossil hunter stopped their vehicle. They would have to make the rest of the trip on foot. They climbed a steep slope that couldn’t be seen from the main road. Near the top, they reached what looked like a small cave carved into the hillside. This was where the fossil hunter had been digging.

Trembling, Ibrahim climbed into the hole. He took a deep breath. Using special tools, he gently picked away at some of the sand and rock. Within minutes, he discovered several bones. Ibrahim studied the bones and smiled. At last, he had found Spinosaurus!

Ibrahim’s search for Spinosaurus was over, but his work on the hillside was just beginning. Many large, predatory dinosaurs seemed to have lived in this area at the same time. Did that mean they were competing for the same prey? Ibrahim began to form a hypothesis for how Spinosaurus could have lived among other big predators. To prove his theory, though, he had to conduct an experiment. Ibrahim had to recreate Spinosaurus.

First, he took all the fossils he’d gathered and put them together to see what this dinosaur might have looked like. He didn’t have all the pieces, but he had enough to get started. His method was to create a digital model on a computer based on what he knew so far.

Then, working with other scientists, he made a skin for his model skeleton. Now he had a complete Spinosaurus. What he had created surprised him. It looked very different from all the other dinosaurs he had ever seen.

Until Ibrahim had created this model, scientists had assumed that Spinosaurus spent most of its time on land. Seeing the way this dinosaur actually looked made Ibrahim realize that it probably didn’t spend much time there.

Ibrahim made a conclusion that this dinosaur spent most of its time in water. Its long tail may have helped propel it through the water. Spinosaurus probably had webbed feet that it used to paddle through water. High nostrils allowed it to keep most of its head underwater while it hunted. This is why Spinosaurus could exist with the other meat-eating dinosaurs. It hunted in the water.

The Spinosaurus’ neck and body were longer than other dinosaurs’. The Spinosaurus had short hind legs and powerful forearms. Its back feet were wide and flat. To Ibrahim, they looked
like paddles.

Ibrahim studied Spinosaurus’ skull closely. It had a long snout, but its nostrils were halfway up the skull. And then there was the sail. It was about 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) long and rose more than 1.8 meters
(5.9 feet) from its back.