NEOVENATOR

Possibly the UK's biggest killer dinosaur. It once roamed the areas of Southern England around 120 million years ago, preying on the herds of Iguanodon and also, I would imagine, the numerous long necked sauropods that were around at this time. It is related to the T-Rex busting Carcharodontosaurus.

Name:

Meaning - Spinosaurus means "spiny lizard"
Named By - .Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach in 1915.

Diet:

Carnivorous: Spinosaurus was a carnivore, a meat eater with long jaws. It ate other plant eating dinosaurs and large fish. The teeth were long and sharp but had little or no serrations. It was a large, fierce predator that could perhaps even kill large suropods. It may also have waded in rivers and shallow seas in order to catch fish. May also have scavenged.

Size:

Length - 40 to 50 feet ( 12 to 17m) long. 

Weight - 4 to 6 tons

Geological Age:

Middle Cretaceous Period, about  95 million years ago - Albian to early Cenemonian. At this time the area was swampy and hot.

Locomotion:

Spinosaurus walked on two muscular legs and was a relatively fast, two-legged runner. It may have gone on all fours at times, given its relatively long arms.

Bones:

Found in North Africa, mainly Egypt and Morocco. The original bones found in 1912 for which Stromer worked on were fragmentary and unfortunately were destroyed in World War II .

Classification:

·           Kingdom Animalia (animals)

·           Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)

·           Class Archosauria (diapsids socket-set teeth, etc.)

·           Order Saurischia - lizard-hipped dinosaurs

·           Suborder Theropoda - bipedal carnivores

·           Tetanura - advanced theropods with three fingers

·           Family Spinosauria

·           Genus Spinosaurus

·           Species S. aegyptiacus (‘Egyptian spine lizard’ type species – Stromer 1915)

o          ? S.maroccanus (‘Moroccan spine Lizard’ – D. A. Russell 1996).

Dino Info:

Possibly the longest theropod, but by no means the biggest as it was more lightly built than Tyrannosaurus or carcharodontosaurines. One of the most remarkable features about this dinosaur was the huge sail on it’s back which was formed by long blade like neural spines, some being as long as 6 foot. The reasons for these are unknown, however they may have played a part in heat dispersal (similar to modern day elephant’s ears) or they could have been used for display purposes. If used for thermo-regulation, could this be a sign that spinosaurus was cold blooded? Other species of dinosaur living at the same time and area as spinosaurus also had similar sail features e.g. the sauropod Rebbachisaurus.

They also had long snouts which had a kink in it, like that of coelophysids and some early synapsids. It is believed that these were used for fishing with, however they had less teeth in their lower jaw than their close relatives – Baryonychines (Baryonyx having an incredible 64 in the lower jaw).  The teeth were straight, un-serrated (or very slightly serrated) and conical in shape. Spinosaurus was an advanced theropod, whose intelligence (as measured by its relative brain to body weight, or EQ) was high among the dinosaurs. Could this Dinosaur have beaten T-Rex in a show down, like in Jurrasic Park III? I would not like to make a guess at that.

Fossil Information:

This is a nice and huge example of from this incredible dinosaur. Some nice enamel all over and nice brown colour. The tip shows some normal feeding ware, proving this dinosaur saw some action in it's lifetime! The tooth measures aprox. 6 cm long and aprox. 2.5 cm wide!. A fantastic specimen from a large spinosaurus showing detail to the lateral ribbing on the surface of the tooth (as seen in the picture) which is more pronounced than in it's earlier ancestor - Baryonyx. 

A GREAT tooth to keep as a prized item or to give as a rewarding present to an extreme dinosaur enthusiast.