Jurassic Park

Spinosaurus, a fearsome meat-eating dinosaur with a strange "sail" on its spine, was named in 1915 by Ernst Stromer, a German paleontologist. Estimated to be around 50 feet long, the Spinosaurus lived during the Cretaceous Period. It is believed some of its spiny thorns were as tall as 6 feet.

Although not much is known about this creature, paleontologists believe it was a menacing killer. Its Latin name means "thorn lizard" or "spiny lizard."

Not many fossils of this giant theropod have been found. Stromer located his specimen at the Bahariya Formation (near the Bahariya Oasis) in Egypt, but it was destroyed during the 1944 bombing of Munich.

Scientists from Pennsylvania launched another expedition to the Bahariya in 1999. They found a treasure of fossils, including what they believe to be parts of a Spinosaurus. No complete skeleton of this ferocious carnivore has been located to date, however.

Dinosaurs, like Spinosaurus, are not the only magnificent "finds" hidden within the oasis at Bahariya. So are mummies - literally hundreds of them. Paleontologists continue to search elsewhere in Africa, in places like Niger, for dinosaur fossils. Their discoveries are astonishing.