Late Cretaceous Cenomanian
Bahariya Formation Egypt
Spinosaurs had widely spaced teeth in seperate sockets like crocodyliformes. So unlike other theropods they may have been lipless with the teeth exposed. The Early Creataceous spinosaurs were semiaquatic like hippos with no obvious adaptations for swimming until Spinosaurus. They shared ancestory with the Jurassic meglasaurs.
updated 091113.
The mangrove environment would have favored fish eaters like spinosaurs and crocodyliformes. River systems were home to swordfish, giant lung fish and coelacanths. Crocodyliformes are diverse and common.
The croc-snouted spinosaurs, apparently adapted to catch fish as part of of their diet. The claws on the arms could have been used to process the giant fish into sizes that it could swallow.
Spinosaurus
had shortened back legs for swimming that would have made the bipedal
posture typical of theropods unlikely. The forelimbs had giant claws
and the palms were pointed inward so it may have moved like mordern
sloths and ant eaters using the edges of the fore arms and claws.
Spinosaurus had been reconstructed from incomplete remains but the long back vertebrae are now known to support a tall sail not a hump.
The National Geographic Spinosaurus
reconstruction popularized by the art work ofDavide Bonadonna.
The controversial 2014 reconstruction, based new fossils, has made all
previous dated and archaic. The front claws are large gaff hooks. Since
other theropods could not rotate the forearm so the palm faced the
ground it could have rested the for limbs on the ground. The short back
legs may not have preculed a bipedal stance.
The environment inhabited by Spinosaurus
was diverse covering a great deal of what is now northern Africa. It
included the Mangrove forests of the Bahariya formation with brackish
water and further west giant Amazon and Nile size river systems that
that threaded bare deserts.
Copyright © 2012 All Rights Reserved