The Spinosaurus was one of the largest land animals to roam Earth, but it wasn't the deadliest. While it was much larger than the mighty T-Rex, the semi-aquatic pre-historic dino had a bark worse than its bite. Although it looked scary, the intimidating sail on its back was one of its most significant weaknesses, and it had a surprisingly weak bite compared to other Theropods of the time.
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Some Quick Facts About the Spinosaurus
| Name | Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, “spine lizard” |
| Type of dinosaur | Sauropod |
| Territory | Near water sources like rivers in pre-historic Sahara, North Africa, Algeria, Niger, and Tunisia |
| Size | Large, 50 feet long, 13,200 pounds |
| Color | Brown |
| Interesting Characteristics | One of the largest carnivorous land dinosaurs. Its sail served to intimate potential predators |
| Diet | Fish |
| Major Threats | Natural disasters, larger Theropoda |
The Spinosaurus was a giant late Cretaceous dinosaur with a powerful bite and a large back dorsal sail. It lived close to bodies of water like rivers and lakes and spent much time wading on the surface on the hunt for a tasty snack.
How Big Was The Spinosaurus?
The Spinosaurus was a massive dinosaur, one of the most enormous land dinosaurs ever. It measured to be about 50 feet long and stood 18 feet tall. The Spinosaurus was about ten feet longer than a T-Rex and about five feet taller. It weighed over 13,000 pounds, or about as much as a full-grown African elephant!
What did the Spinosaurus Look Like?
The Spinosaurus had a lot in common with modern-day crocodiles. Its short hind legs and webbed feet allowed it to swim easily in the water. The Spinosaurus was bipedal, meaning it walked around on its hind limbs. This Theropod dinosaur had a long alligator-like mouth that could quickly snatch fish out of the water.
How Strong Was The Spinosaurus?
The Spinosaurus was a strong dinosaur that could take on a Tyrannosaurus Rex or a Carcharodontosaurus. It had a powerful bite force and used its tail as a whip to fight off predators.
The Spinosaurus had a mouth of razor-sharp teeth similar to a modern crocodile and a bite force that was just as deadly. The bite force of a Spinosaurus was about 4,200 pounds per square inch. Although the Spinosaurus was larger than a T-Rex, its bite force wasn’t as powerful.
Similar carnivorous dinosaurs of the time, like the T-Rex or Baryonyx, had a bite force of about 12,000 pounds per square inch!
What was the Spinosaurus’ most prominent feature?
Its enormous dorsal sail on its back makes the Spinosaur stand out from the crowd. And what makes its sail so interesting is that paleontologists don’t know for sure what the function of its sails was used for.
Some believe it was a way to intimidate predators to stay away since it made it look much bigger and more ferocious. Some thought it was a way to regulate body temperature since the Spinosaurus was semi-aquatic and spent most of its time in the water.
Did the Spinosaurus hunt?
The Spinosaurus was an excellent hunter, but it didn’t hunt like the Tyrannosaurus Rex or other Theropods of the late Cretaceous period. The body frame of the Spinosaurus was a little bit different.
Unlike the bird-like T-Rex, it had very dense bones and exceptional buoyancy like an alligator. The Spinosaurus would skim the surface of a river, waiting for fish or other marine life to swim into its deadly path.
As a meat-eater, it dined on Mesozoic creatures like fish, crocodylomorphs, turtles, pterosaurs, and lizards. It wasn’t an herbivore or a carnivore; it was a piscivore, meaning it mainly ate fish.
Could Spino Defeat The T-Rex?
The T-Rex would win the battle against Spino. The Spinosaurus was larger than the Tyrannosaurus Rex but wasn’t well equipped for land battles. The bite force of the Tyrannosaurus Rex was almost three times more deadly than the Spinosaurus, and it was much quicker on its feet than Spino.
However, if the Tyrannosaurus Rex ventured too close to the water’s edge, it could give the wading Spino an advantage in the battle since T-Rex wasn’t a good swimmer.
What Was Spinosaurus’ Weakness?
The Spinosaurus had one major weakness: its sail. While the sail helped it thrive in the water and could potentially scare off predators, it was its biggest weakness. The sail of the Spinosaurus was exposed spine vertebrae with no protection.
As a human, our spines are protected within our bodies. The Spinosaurus’ spine was out in the open, and one strike to it could be a lethal blow. If potential predators weren’t scared by the sail of the Spinosaurus enough to stay away, Spino would be in trouble.
When Were The Spinosaurus Dossils Discovered?
The Spinosaurus was discovered in Egypt in 1912 by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer, but very few specimens were found at this site. At the site in Egypt, paleontologists unearthed a partial skeleton which was enough to earn it a dinosaur classification.
To make matters worse, many of the original Spinosaurus fossil records were destroyed during a bombing raid during World War II. Luckily, descriptions of the holotype allowed paleontology to recreate the initial findings.
Since the bombings, new data on the Spinosaurs have popped up in places like the Kem Kem beds in Morocco, giving us a clearer picture of this ferocious spinosaurid.