Day #19 on our Christmas Countdown is…
SPINOSAURUs!
Spinosaurus: the “Spine Lizard”
Spinosaurus was one of the largest, fiercest, most epic predators of all time. Only the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex could compare, and we’ll never know who would win in a battle because they did not live in the same time or place…Spinosaurus in the earlier part of Late Cretaceous Africa, and T. rex right at the end of Late Cretaceous North America.
So where are all the teeth? The jaw-snapping ferociousness and roaring to the skies?
Well, the truth is most large predators spend a good deal of their time snoozing.
Imagine this big guy catching some z’s in the shade of trees that look very much like the twisted roots of a mangrove. Horsetails and other vegetation adapted to survive the tides and ever-shifting channels of mud form half-choked waterways. Perfect places to wait in ambush for fish swimming back out to sea with the tide.
Soon this muddy bank will be flooded as the tide flows in, and he may wade to a better spot for fishing, but for now, the great predator sleeps.
What are some stereotypes you can think of for other popular dinosaurs? What might they do that would surprise us? I’m thinking something in the style of “All Yesterdays”. Tree-climbing Protoceratops, honey-badger Hypsolophodon, or something equally surprising, but possible based on what we see in the wacky behavior of animals today.
I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments!
See you tomorrow for day 20 of the Critter Christmas Countdown!
Pete's Paleo Petshop 
So glad to see today’s entry finally posted! I also want to add that Spinosaurus has gone through several different appearances in the past ten years or so. From the redescription of 2014 leading to shorter legs and an M-shaped sail to the more modern idea of it still being bipedal to the aquatic interpretation and discovery of a tail fin, Spinosaurus is going through so many changes recently. All in all, it still remains fragmentary with several puzzle pieces left to solve.
(Additional thoughts and my own critter focus will be posted later)
LikeLike
It’s amazing that you finally get to talk about this remarkable dinosaur. And I appreciate its sleepy portrayal here. Don’t forget to say something about Spinosaurus’s recent evolution on how it looked to us that I brought up.
The creature that I will focus on for the 19th will be Rhamphosuchus, a gavialid from the Pliocene of southwestern Asia. Found in two different areas, the Siwalik Hills of Pakistan and India and the Sindh region of India, it currently is only known from incomplete fossils, mostly teeth and skulls. There, however is a possibility that there is more to it, as four species of Gavialis (the genus that includes the living gharial) may be included in Rhamphosuchus.
Many paleontologists in the past suggest this crocodilian as one of the largest to ever live, with an estimated length of 49 to 59 feet (15 to 18 meters). However, more recent studies suggest that the croc was 26 to 36 feet (8 to 11 meters). Thus, it nowadays isn’t considered the largest known crocodilian. If the more recent estimate is correct, then it would have been surpassed by things such as Deinosuchus, Sarcosuchus, and Gryposuchus.
Rhamphosuchus previously was regarded as closely related to the false gharial. They were group together in the subfamily Tomistominae until it was considered to be paraphyletic. A 2022 study recovered Rhamphosuchus as a derived member of the Gavialinae subfamily instead and may have had a more generalized predatory does than its piscivorous former “relatives”.
Names for each:
Spinosaurus: Niles
Rhamphosuchus: Gavin
LikeLike
He eepy. How about Nile for a name? If male, or Dila (Like Crocodile ) if female
LikeLiked by 1 person