Hi, welcome to Enchiridion. I am honored to share with you these facts on Spinosaurus in a legendary episode of Dinosaurs Unearthed!
Spinosaurus was a spinosaurid dinosaur that lived in what is now North Africa during the Cenomanian to upper Turonian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 99 to 93.5 million years ago. The genus was first known from Egyptian remains discovered in 1912 and described by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in 1915.
Spinosaurus was among the largest of all known carnivorous dinosaurs, nearly as large as or even larger than other theropods like Tyrannosaurus, Giganotosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus. New size estimates published in 2014 and 2018, based on a more complete specimen, supported the earlier research, finding that Spinosaurus could reach lengths of 49 to 52 feet, or 15 to 16 meters. The latest estimates suggest a weight of 6.4 to 7.5 metric tons, or 7.1 to 8.3 short tons. The skull of Spinosaurus was long, low and narrow, similar to that of a modern crocodilian, and bore straight conical teeth with no serrations.
Spinosaurus is known to have eaten fish, and most scientists believe that it hunted both terrestrial and aquatic prey. Evidence suggests that it was highly semiaquatic, and lived both on land and in water as modern crocodilians do. Multiple functions have been put forward for the dorsal sail, including display; either to intimidate rivals or attract mates, or thermoregulation.
From the 1990s to 2014, Spinosaurus was commonly portrayed as a very long yet comparatively lightly built theropod dinosaur, that aside from the skull and a sail on the back, was roughly similar to other large theropod dinosaurs in build. Then, in September 2014, a new study written by Nizar Ibrahim and colleagues was published along with great fanfare by National Geographic including a full-size model reconstruction. This new ‘Spinosaurus’ still had a crocodile-like skull and a sail on its back, yet this time Spinosaurus had been rebuilt as an obligatory quadrupedal dinosaur.
The new ‘2014 Spinosaurus’ quickly filled the internet with news stories not only because it was so different from before but because for at least twenty (20) years before Spinosaurus had fast become one of the more popular dinosaurs in fiction like films and games.
In 2020, a new paper by Ibrahim et al. was published, this time describing an almost complete tail of a Spinosaurus. The vertebrae of this tail showed highly developed neural spines as well as deep chevrons on the underside. These extended features applied to all of the vertebrae right down to the end of the tail, making the whole tail into a broad paddle shape. Furthermore, the tail of Spinosaurus was not stiff, it was actually very flexible and capable of a lateral, side-to-side movement. This means that in theory Spinosaurus could have propelled itself through the water with its tail.
#Enchiridion #DinosaursUnearthed #Spinosaurus
Table of Contents:
0:00 - An Introductory Story
1:30 - Introduction
5:16 - History Of Discovery And Development
7:49 - How Spinosaurus Has Been Reconstructed Over The Years
8:34 - 2014 Spinosaurus
11:56 - 2020 Spinosaurus; Tail Reconstruction
12:32 - Description; Estimating The Size Of Spinosaurus
16:42 - Description; Skull
18:05 - Description; Post-Cranial Skeleton
22:43 - Ontogeny
23:18 - Locomotion And Posture
25:57 - Sail Or Hump, And Why?
31:55 - Lifestyle
36:17 - Aquatic Habits
39:51 - Diet And Feeding
41:59 - What Fish Were On The Menu For Spinosaurus?
44:08 - Paleoenvironment
45:53 - Specimens
45:57 - BSP 1912 VIII 19
47:50 - NMC 50791
48:45 - MNHM SAM 124
49:32 - BM231
50:02 - UCPC-2
50:34 - MSNM V4047
51:13 - FSAC-KK 11888
53:52 - MNHM.KK374 to .KK378
54:20 - Possible Specimens
55:48 - Naming
55:52 - Named By
55:57 - Scientific Classification; The Rise Of Spinosaurids
59:01 - Phylogeny
1:00:07 - Species
1:01:11 - Diet
1:01:15 - Size
1:01:24 - Weight
1:01:32 - Known Locations
1:01:40 - Time Period
1:01:48 - Fossil Representation
1:02:01 - In Popular Culture
1:03:54 - Popular Culture; Shows
1:04:25 - Popular Culture; Games
1:05:15 - Conclusion
1:07:05 - Outro
_____
Credits / Sources:
Walking With Dinosaurs Soundtrack (1999) by Benjamin Bartlett
Beevor, T., Quigley, A., Smith, R., Smyth, R., Ibrahim, N., Zouhri, S., & Martill, D. (2020, August 28). Taphonomic evidence supports an aquatic lifestyle for Spinosaurus. Retrieved May 01, 2021, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S019566712030313X
Spinosaurus. (2021, April 25). Retrieved May 01, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinosaurus
Trapman, T. (2050, January 01). Stable isotope analysis of theropod teeth from The Kem Kem Beds, North Africa - niche differentiation among large predatory dinosaurs. Retrieved May 01, 2021, from https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/368036
Www.prehistoric-wildlife.com, D. (n.d.). Spinosaurus. Retrieved May 01, 2021, from http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/s/spinosaurus.html
0 Comments