Spinosaurus: spine OH soar us
Perhaps this old guy comes off a little cranky at first because he's fishing but you could too if you had the title of
"Biggest Meat Eating Dinosaur."
We thought T-Rex was huge but Old Spiny (our nickname for him) was actually bigger measuring over 41 feet in length to as long as 59 feet. Spinosaurus is also a Theropod and his name means "spine lizard".
The skull of Spinosaurus was long and narrow like that of a crocodile with teeth that were long and straight. He lived in the Crataceous period about 112 to 97 million years ago. The remains of Spinosaurus were discovered in Egypt in 1912 but were destroyed in World War II in Germany.
Rumor has it that Old Spiny could have weighed as much as 46,000 pounds living on a diet of fish and meat while living both on the land and in the water. We could imagine that the spines on his back added a great deal of weight as the spine was formed by vertebrae that grew to be about 5 feet long. These vertebrae were likely to have skin covering them making it appear the Old Spiny had a sail on his back. This sail could have been a sign when mating to females or it may have been an aid in helping to regulate body temperature.
Old Spiny looks to have longer front limbs than our friend from last week too. This makes some experts think that he may have walked on all fours occasionally. Combined with his fish diet you could say he's a mirror image of grizzly bears.
They don't look anything alike but they do have similar traits.....
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