Ready to learn about the pointy-spined dinosaur called the Spinosaurus? This dinosaur fact sheet about Spinosaurus is free to download as a printable PDF document.
What does the name Spinosaurus mean?
Spinosaurus translates to “spine lizard”. This name was given to it because of the tall spines on its back.
What family was the Spinosaurus part of?
The Spinosaurus is part of the Spinosauridae family. It is a family of dinosaurs that were carnivores and walked on two legs. It is split further into two subfamilies: Spinosaurinae and Baryonychinae.
What did the Spinosaurus eat?
The Triceratops was a carnivore, feeding mainly on fish as well a small to medium-sized animals. The teeth of the Spinosaurus are similar to crocodiles and were used to eat and hold prey.
When and where did the Spinosaurus live?
The Spinosaurus lived in many areas including Africa, Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia in the Early to Mid Cretaceous Period, about 145 to 100.5 million years ago.
How big was the Spinosaurus?
It was a large dinosaur up to 15 meters (49 ft.) tall and weighed up to 6.4 to 7.2 tons (7.1 to 7.9 short tons).
When was the first skeleton of a Spinosaurus found?
The first skeleton of a Spinosaurus was found by Gideon Mantell in the Wadhurst Clay Formation in South East England in 1820. He found a conical tooth, which he believed belonged to what he called Suchosaurus.
Further remains, including vertebrae, skull pieces, and teeth were found in 1912 in the Bahariya Formation of Egypt. These were described as coming from a new species called the Spinosaurus aegyptiacus.
What are some unique features of the Spinosaurus?
One of the most distinctive features of the Spinosaurus is the tall spines pointed upward on its back. These spines grew to over 1 m (3 ft) tall. Other dinosaurs such as therapods had back spines, but were often shorter than the ones found on the Spinosaurus.
What are other interesting facts about Spinosaursus?
The Spinosaurus may have been one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs to exist, even bigger than the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
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