New Spinosaurus look, revealed!!

Adam Khor

http://events.nationalgeographic.com/media/images/photos/Spinosaurus_Inline.png

Apparently the skeleton of Spinosaurus has been reconstructed based on new remains. This photo shows a really weird animal- very short legs, huge neural spines, quite low to the ground... (sadly this is the only photo I could find, no bigger version available yet)



The shape of the sail is apparently different from what we thought- even the promotional logos for the exhibit show it like this:



Which I guess is not that much different from the double sail of Ichthyovenator:

Rubecula

Shorter legs?

Maybe it had a more crocodilian lifestyle than thought too? Tail might have been flexible for swimming and legs only used on land. Sail could have been used to preserve heat when it was in the water. Nostrils however are a bit problematic.

Adam Khor

I remember reading that the placement of nostrils in a dinosaur's skull does not necessarily reflect the nostril opening when the animal was alive (for example, sauropods were once believed to have their nostrils on top of the head, and then there was Nat Geo's article about how theropods like Allosaurus had their nostrils lower and closer to the mouth than most reconstructions). I don´t know, maybe this applies to Spinosaurus too? I guess we'll have to wait for more details...

I just remembered I posted about the new Spinosaurus look before, complete with pictures of a life-sized statue supossedly based on the new remains. It does have very short legs:

Rubecula

Where is that taken Adam?

Adam Khor

Florence, Italy

Adam Khor

Luis Rey has depicted Spino according to the new skeleton (or what we can see of it) and it's just bizarre:



Definitely more crocodile than "giant heron" as everyone was calling it. But we still have to wait for more details...

Kess73

That is bizarre looking alright, and probably moreso because we have gotten used to a set look for spinosaurus.


Everytime I look at that pic I cannot help but be reminded of how Iguanodon was originally presented to the public in 1852.

Adam Khor

Kess73 wrote: »

That is bizarre looking alright, and probably moreso because we have gotten used to a set look for spinosaurus.

I remember when Horner said "if you want to see what dinosaurs looked like, go see the Jurassic Park movies". Or something of the sort.

Now we know raptors were feathered, spino was a short legged freak and Pteranodons (the horror!) had no teeth.

T.Rex is next, people.

Rubecula

aw no, not a toothless T Rex?

(Imagine being sucked to death)

Adam Khor

Maybe it had a super rough tongue, like a giant cat, and could lick the flesh of your bones? :pac:

Kess73

The new look is very bulky looking.


Am very curious as to what it's estimated weight will be if we are still to go by the most recent sets of estimated lengths ( the 33 to 49 foot range)

Adam Khor

Kess73 wrote: »

The new look is very bulky looking.


Am very curious as to what it's estimated weight will be if we are still to go by the most recent sets of estimated lengths ( the 33 to 49 foot range)

The Nat Geo site still describes it as being larger than T-Rex. Also, if the sail is actually a hump it will probably be even heavier!

Kess73

Adam Khor wrote: »

The Nat Geo site still describes it as being larger than T-Rex. Also, if the sail is actually a hump it will probably be even heavier!

Hard to see it being anywhere near or below any of the old weight estimates, even those at the higher end, that were made about it in it's previous form.


The old look had weight estimates ranging from 4 or 5 tons right up to the 20 or so ton bracket.

Hard to see how a much bulkier version of the same length could be anything but heavier.

In theory the new version really could be a giant carnivore in every sense.


For some reason I am getting a big Komodo dragon crossed with a bear vibe off of the new look. I know I should probably be thinking something a bit more crocodilian in nature, but when I look at the pic of the skeleton and at the Luis Rey drawing, I cannot help thinking that it, visually, appears to have characteristics that might suggest it was not crocodilian in terms of movement, behaviour etc.

Galvasean

Really can't wait to read the official material on this one.

The suspense is killing me!

Rubecula

Galvasean wrote: »

Really can't wait to read the official material on this one.

The suspense is killing me!

Me too

Adam Khor

One thing is for sure... the Jurassic Park Spinosaurus was just as mutated as the dilophosaur...

Rubecula

And the plucked T-Rex

Adam Khor

They did find some scaly T-Rex skin, and no evidence of feathers, so that is not really that egregious.

Rubecula

Look you if IO want to be argumentative with a professional you are not going to stop me :P

Yeah fair point Adam. And the idea of a feathered T-Rex was only sort of mooted back when the film was being made.

Adam Khor

I do remember Nat Geo magazine mentioning that the baby T-Rex in The Lost World probably should've been feathered, but we can´t even say that for sure... we have no baby T-Rex fossils yet.

And let's face it, there's a 60 million year or so separation between T-Rex and the supossed feathered tyrannosauroids from China- more than enough time for them to go nudist if they felt like it :P

Rubecula

A nudist beach I would not like to be found on LOL LOL

Adam Khor

The Spinosaurus exhibit opens this Friday- hopefully, new info and pics to arrive soon.

Meanwhile, check out these illustrations from the Italian Nat Geo site (apparently the largest Spinosaurus specimen is in Milan and suggests a length of about 16 meters- still the longest carnivorous dinosaur known).

http://www.nationalgeographic.it/scienza/2011/09/14/foto/come_torna_in_vita_un_dinosauro-502106/1/#media



Lower teeth apparently visible with jaws closed:

Ziphius

Nice write up on BBC.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29143096

Far weirder, and more interesting, than the hollywood monster of pop culture.

Adam Khor

Agreed, its fantastic!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/09/140911-spinosaurus-fossil-discovery-dinosaur-science/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20140912news-spinosaurus&utm_campaign=Content&sf4600749=1















(Don´t forget Carcha):

Jurassic Cyclist 24

On sky news apparently combo of bird and crocodile
It had a head like a croc
Neck like a bird
Feet like a duck

Adam Khor

The first thing I thought when I saw the skeleton was "dragon", tho. :pac:

Adam Khor

Jack Horner dismissed as "fictional character" in this article about Spino:

http://rt.com/news/187384-spinosaurus-fossils-aquatic-dinosaur/

:pac: