Spinosaurus Dinosaur: Startling Facts About This Huge Dinosaur

Holding the world record for being the largest known carnivorous dinosaur is the Spinosaurus. Spinosaurus is the Greek word meaning "spine lizard" pronounced SPINE -oh-SORE-us. Spinosaurus is called "spiny lizard" because it had a series of large spiky, projections coming out its back vertebrae, and these 6 feet long spikes most likely formed a sail-like fin. This sail is the one feature that makes the Spinosaurus distinguishable from the other large prehistoric carnivores of the same period. This large dinosaur was about 40 - 50 feet long and weighed 4 tons or more. Some paleontologists estimate it weighed up to 9 tons. It stood 20 feet high. This dinosaur had a large, rather skinny head, measuring close to 6 feet in length, with straight, non-serrated teeth in powerful, crocodile-like jaws. Scaly skin covered its neck.

This prehistoric creature is thought to have made multiple uses of its prominent fin. When this now extinct Spinosaurus would arch its back, this haughty "sail" alone was over 6 feet tall. The fin could have been used as a colorful display utilized in the attraction of females. One theory is that a male Spinosaurus with bigger, flashier sails were more successful at mating with females of the species. The fin would likely have also been used as a warning display for rival males.

This fin has been considered by some paleontologists to be proof that this dinosaur was cold-blooded. The use of the fin as a large heat exchanger would provide substantial proof for this idea. Similar temperature regulating use is seen in today's cold blooded reptiles.

Spinosaurus was bipedal meaning it walked on two legs. Its arms were smaller than its legs but were larger than the arms of most other theropods. It may have been possible for it to have gone on all fours at times. Spinosaurus was a carnivore (meat eater) and ate a diet of fish and meat. It probably spent a lot of time grabbing large fish in or near water. It would have killed and eaten other dinosaurs. They were fierce predators and may also have been scavengers.

The Spinosaurus lived about 98 to 95 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period. It lived in the tropics, near sea level in what is now Africa. Spinosaurus fossils were found in Northern Africa and named in 1915 by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach. Very few Spinosaurus fossils have been found, and the ones that have been are incomplete. A World War II Allied bombing raid destroyed the first known Spinosaurus remains. Fortunately, Stromer had documented his find or no one may have ever known about this prehistoric dinosaur.

Sources:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/dinos/Spinosaurus.shtml
http://dsc.discovery.com/dinosaurs/spinosaurus.html