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Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus

Spinosaurus, meaning spine lizard, is


known for its large sail on the back and
being one of the biggest known
carnivorous dinosaur (about 12-18
meters) which is as big as or bigger than
the Tyrannosaurus, Giganotosaurus and
Carcharodontosaurus. The Spinosaurus
is also famous for being the only specie
of dinosaurs that swimming. Its paddle-
like feet and nostrils on top of its head
would allow it to stay underwater with
ease. It possessed long and narrow skull with holes-like structure at the tip similar to that
of the modern crocodile. This type of skull helped the Spinosaurus to hunt and sense
underwater preys.

It was thought to be bipedal, walked and hunted near rivers


similar to Suchomimus, Baryonyx and Ichthyovenator. This was
showed to be wrong due to its proportion and the discovery of
its hindlegs and hip in Morocco. Unlike Suchomimus, Baryonyx
and Ichthyovenator which didn’t have or had much smaller sail,
Spinosaurus would be too front heavy to chase down preys on
land, it would need to walk on all
4 legs to stay balanced. The
discovery in Morocco confirmed
this idea. It is now confirmed that Spinosaurus had a semi-
aquatic life, hunting large fish interlocking cone-shaped
teeth.

Although being the biggest known carnivorous dinosaur, Spinosaurus would be unlikely
to fight other large carnivorous therapods due to its fragile sail attached to its spine and
walked on 4 legs would put the Spinosaurus into height disadvantage against them. While
having extremely similar skull and life style to the
modern crocodile, Spinosaurus’ behavior is different.
With its sail, Spinosaurus couldn’t stalk preys drinking
water like the crocodile, it would be too obvious.
Instead, Spinosaurus completely submerged its body
underwater and swim using its webbed feets to hunt fish
or just submerge only its jaws underwater (in more
shallowed river) waiting for preys to swim by. Having
nostrils closer to its eyes allowed it to submerge it jaws
completely underwater for a long period of time and
detect its prey using small holes on the tip of its skull as
a sensing device.
The purpose of Spinosaurus’ sail is remained unknown. It’s speculate that it used its sail
to attract mates, help it to swim, make it looked more intimidating, or to control body
temperature. Currently we don’t have enough fossil records and evidences to confirm the
use of its sail.

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