Spinosaurus new look!

[DinoLord]

That said, lions and tigers are very closely related and virtually identical on a skeletal level but live very different lives. Really put things into perspective when looking at extinct animals.

I've always loved this contrast - it just sets the mind's capacity for paleo-imagination even further.

Back to the subject of Spinosaurus though - I found the blog post suggesting a mud-crawling lifestyle earlier in the thread quite interesting. However my main problem with that theory (and a point that has been mentioned before) is that there was no lack of proper crocodilians in the environs spinosaurs resided in, especially when considering monsters like Sarcosuchus. Perhaps our interpretation of spinosaur lifestyle is being too biased by their cranial similarities to crocodilians? It's possible they had a lifestyle unlike anything we could imagine...

[Tyto_Theropod]

Okay, so this may be completely barking up the wrong tree, but it's just a suggestion. The shift of the nostrils up the snout (assuming that there wasn't some kind of soft tissue mechanism going on, as in Sauropods) and the shortening of limbs are both features in the evolution of Cetacian mammals. Perhaps Spinosaurus was part of a line of dinosaurs who were beginning to undergo a similar process and adapt to a more aquatic lifestyle. Given time, they may have gone on to evolve flippers or lose their hindlimbs completely and evolved into something equivalent to today's whales and dolphins. Of course there is no evidence of such a creature, and this may be because something caused this group's extinction before it made it that far, or that we haven't discovered any of their fossils yet, or haven't recognised them for what they are. The only problem with this theory is that of course the niche this group would be occupying was already filled by marine reptiles like Ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs and Mosasaurs, and it would certainly be highly far-fetched to say that any of these are descended from Spinosaurus. Still, looking at the ancestors of the Cetaceans it seems obvious to me that shorter legs are a natural response to a an increasingly amphibious lifestyle.

[tyrantqueen]

You never know

[Tyto_Theropod]

Also, it kind of tickles me that here, in the middle of the Dinosaur Revolution, where we have all these fast, feathered, intelligent animals, here we have something that's increasingly tending towards an uncanny resemblance to the sluggish swamp-dwellers of old...

And here, in glorious Wikimedia Commons form as provided by user Cretacea-evolution, is what I mean:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_cetaceans#mediaviewer/File:Cetacea-evolution.jpg

The shift of the nostrils happened later than in Spinosaurus, but the reduction of limbs is definitely there

[Newt]

It's an interesting suggestion. Phytosaurs followed a similar route.

You know who else has long snouts with proximal nostrils?  Birds (well, most of them). I don't know what the evolutionary impetus for this snout design in birds is (saving weight?), but one advantage it provides to some birds is that they can keep their bill tips submerged for long periods without interfering with respiration. Not so much the spear-fishers, like herons and storks, but the dabblers like spoonbills and curlews; they can use their bill tips to probe through water and mud for small prey. Maybe spinosaurids did something similar.

[Tyto_Theropod]

You know who else has long snouts with proximal nostrils?  Birds (well, most of them). I don't know what the evolutionary impetus for this snout design in birds is (saving weight?), but one advantage it provides to some birds is that they can keep their bill tips submerged for long periods without interfering with respiration. Not so much the spear-fishers, like herons and storks, but the dabblers like spoonbills and curlews; they can use their bill tips to probe through water and mud for small prey. Maybe spinosaurids did something similar.

Indeed, as was so beautifully illustrated in the first episode of BBC's Planet Dinosaur.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTzfaY2kx0U

And I know I'm now going to be called out for citing a pop science TV program... but seriously, that documentary was pretty good for all its venomous Sinornithosaurus etc etc, and the Spinosaurus sequences were, IMHO, beautifully done.

[Newt]

New stuff from National Geographic:

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

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/10/spinosaurus/mueller-text

And from Science:

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/09/10/science.1258750

[Gwangi]

Finally! So exciting!

EDIT: More stuff!

http://phys.org/news/2014-09-shark-munching-spinosaurus-first-known-dinosaur.html

http://www.nature.com/news/swimming-dinosaur-found-in-morocco-1.15901

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26193-biggest-hunting-dinosaur-was-an-aquatic-sharkgobbler.html#.VBIPnxZ9fpc

[fabricious]

I am growing really fond of this new look, already started sketching an illustration of the 'new' spino~ 

[Concavenator]

I don't know if waiting for someone to release an updated Spinosaurusmor getting the Carnegie figure.

[Concavenator]

BTW,I'm trying to convince CollectA for updating their Spinosaurus:
https://www.facebook.com/CollectA.biz

[Balaur]

Oh! Oh! What did I say? I said it was the only true aquatic dinosaur. And it is! 

What's up with the small legs? The arms are bigger than its legs! How did it even walk on land?

[Gwangi]

Oh! Oh! What did I say? I said it was the only true aquatic dinosaur. And it is! 

What's up with the small legs? The arms are bigger than its legs! How did it even walk on land?

If you watch the video on the Nat Geo link you'll see it walks on all fours. 

[Concavenator]

Oh! Oh! What did I say? I said it was the only true aquatic dinosaur. And it is! 

What's up with the small legs? The arms are bigger than its legs! How did it even walk on land?

Didn't Koreaceratops swim too? 

[HD-man]

Oh! Oh! What did I say? I said it was the only true aquatic dinosaur. And it is! 

Semi-aquatic: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/09/10/science.1258750

[DinoLord]

Interesting how the Nat Geo video shows it as being able to walk quadripedally. I wonder if any new hand material was found?

[Tyto_Theropod]

So excited now that it's all coming out! Everything about this explanation makes so much sense, almost as if an animal that's been dead for around a hundred million years is suddenly coming back to life for us to marvel at it.

Aside from that, I'm feeling kind of smug (probably unjustly so) that the professionals were comparing it to marine mammals, like I'd done. And my mother HATES the new look. I'm slowly getting used to it - more so now that we don't just have Rey's psychadelic photomanipulation lol!

It's a wonderful feeling for me as when I was a dinosaur-obsessed seven-year-old and first heard about Spinosaurus, I was really frustrated that the fossils had been lost it was one of my wildest dreams that they'd find more. Now they have, and my seven-year-old self is jumping around like it's Christmas

I just can't wait for them to bring out an up-to-date model, that will; definitely be high on my wishlist

[Balaur]

Oh! Oh! What did I say? I said it was the only true aquatic dinosaur. And it is! 

Semi-aquatic: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/09/10/science.1258750

Well, it seems like it would have a very hard time walking on land. It has more adaptations to being in water than being on land. Still, first aquatic/semi-aquatic dinosaur.

[tyrantqueen]

I just read the Beeb article on this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29143096



This image just looks so...bizarre. How come its front arms are bigger than its legs?

[Gwangi]

The IFLS page on Facebook posted a story about this. If you follow the page, don't read the comments. "Spino was in JP3, this is old news" is stated very frequently. I made my comment, no doubt a waste of time.