spinosaurus

[darylj]

I think its inevitable that the sail evolved for some kind of thermo reg.
this creature was at least semi aquatic.. maybe standing all day in water... waiting... thats gonna make any animal cold... warm or cold blooded.
having a sail in the sun, out of the water all the time... thats a great help!

it just baffles me that the 'more aquatic' species (sucho) had smaller sails... when this theory would suggest other wise.

i mean, this combined with the fact that it would make the animal look bigger is interesting... as it would essentially remove any threats from spino...
as is the idea of using it to shade the water.... to see fish better... but as mentioned... it would mean hunting at a horrible angle.

what about a method of keeping eggs cool?
do we have any idea of the sex of spino finds?

also... side note. what other big theropods loved with spino, sucho, baryonyx etc?

[amargasaurus cazaui]

From the reading I have done, it might be a possibility the environment itself was responsible for the adaptation. The thing that has caught my attention is Spinosaurus was a basically African dinosaur, and that land mass was connected to what is now South America. When you look at animals from both continents, you get Spinosaurus, Amargasaurus and Ouranosaurus. Sails or humps, or at least some form of back adapation occurring in several lines of dinosaurs from arguably the same basic location. Could there have been a common ancestor that was spined or would it seem more likely they are all a form of adaptation to the localized environment, likely temperature? If memory serves there was another species of sauropod from Africa also known with spines down its back...

[Yutyrannus]

I think that there was a sail rather than a hump, because the hump is thought to have stored fat for the spinosaur to live on, like a camel. Whoever believes this theory seems to be forgetting the spinosaurus did not live in a desert, but a swamp. Also being warm-blooded, spinosaurus would have no need for a thermal regulator. For me, a sail evolved for display is the only way for not only spinosaurus, but all sailed spinosaurs.

That's if Spinosaurus was warm blooded. There is no consensus on that issue yet. Besides, the need to regulate temperature is no unique to cold blooded animals. Just look at the ears of most desert dwelling mammals. Jack rabbits, fenic foxes, elephants all use their ears to shed excess head.
Spinosaurs could have done the same with their sails.

Sure, but spinosaurus wasn't a desert animal .

[Gwangi]

I think that there was a sail rather than a hump, because the hump is thought to have stored fat for the spinosaur to live on, like a camel. Whoever believes this theory seems to be forgetting the spinosaurus did not live in a desert, but a swamp. Also being warm-blooded, spinosaurus would have no need for a thermal regulator. For me, a sail evolved for display is the only way for not only spinosaurus, but all sailed spinosaurs.

That's if Spinosaurus was warm blooded. There is no consensus on that issue yet. Besides, the need to regulate temperature is no unique to cold blooded animals. Just look at the ears of most desert dwelling mammals. Jack rabbits, fenic foxes, elephants all use their ears to shed excess head.
Spinosaurs could have done the same with their sails.

Sure, but spinosaurus wasn't a desert animal .

No, but it was a large animal living in a warm place.

[Takama]

I find this coincidental, but i was just working on the spinosaurus fact sheet and all of a sudden, a thread pops up for this dinosaur

Alright if i post this for "Expert anlysus"?


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Spinosaurus

Family: theropoda

Diet: Primarily a piscivore

Found in: Egypt

Lived During: Middle Cretaceous

Size: Estimated to be 49 feet long

Related too: Baryonx and Irritator

Basic Facts: Spinosaurus was first discovered back in the early 1910s, and since then it has been considered to be one of the largest theropods that ever walked the earth. Size estimates rival it against some of the largest carnosaurs such as Giganotosaurus & Carcharodontosaurus, However, while they prefer the meat of other dinosaurs, Spinosaurus preferred a diet of fish. The evidence of this diet has been uncovered from a fossilized skeleton of a Saw Fish, which had a Spinosaurus tooth imbedded within it.
Right now, all that has been known from it is the Jaws and vertebra, and also a small crest on its head.
The most complete specimen that was ever found of this genus was destroyed during a bombing raid in World War II, and all that was left of it were the detailed drawings left from the scientist who first discovered it. Thanks to the remains of its relatives, Its anatomy has been easily reconstructed, largely because of its skull which matches those of Irritator Suchomimis and Baryonx. Like Suchomimis and Baryonx, it has been accepted that it has a large hand claw as well, that's used to snag up fish with ease.

The thing that gives Spinosaurus its namesake is its Six foot spines that protruded out of its back. There has been some serious argument on how these spines may appeard. Some scientist believe that the spines formed a giant fin, just like the sailed back Phycosaurs of the early Permian period, and other scintist thought of it to be a giant hump, simaler to a Bison.
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hope this dosent count as hi jacking

[SBell]

I just hope you use a spell checker if you do use it

And it is normally prudent to use a citation of some kind to explain where your information came from.

[Gryphoceratops]

Yes always cite your work.   

[Takama]

Note taken, Its a rough draft so its still ,well rough

[darylj]

so i guess most of this conversation has been made void...

[Lusotitan]

On the issue of a sail versus a hump, I think the answer is that we're thinking to black and white. It doesn't appear to have been a proper, thin, skin and bone sail like that of, say, Dimetrodon, but a hump also seems extreme. It seems more likely to me it was more of a grey area in between, kind of somewhat thicker sail, but really more of an intermediate then either one.

[Dinoguy2]

On the issue of a sail versus a hump, I think the answer is that we're thinking to black and white. It doesn't appear to have been a proper, thin, skin and bone sail like that of, say, Dimetrodon, but a hump also seems extreme. It seems more likely to me it was more of a grey area in between, kind of somewhat thicker sail, but really more of an intermediate then either one.

I think part of the problem is using the word "sail". Cope invented this word for the "sail" of Edaphosaurus because he thought they used it as a literal sail!
http://dinogoss.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-tale-of-sail.html

I'd call the things made up of tall spines covered in soft tissue in dimetrodonts, spinosaurs, ouranosaurs, chameleons, etc. "crests" instead.

[Lusotitan]

Well again, using Dimetrodon as a comparison is arguably flawed, as it effectively had just skin over thin rods, as opposed to comparatively bulky neural spines of Ouranosaurus and Spinosaurus, supporting structures which where probably thicker, just not to the point of being a hump.

[suspsy]

http://antediluviansalad.blogspot.ca/2015/11/spinosaurus-unauthorized-ii-spino.html

So apparently Spinosaurus wasn't exactly a speed swimmer. But that doesn't mean it couldn't have been an effective water predator.

[Kovu]

Interesting food for thought! I'm not really a theropod person, but I've always considered spinosaurs to be super interesting. I can totally see Spinosaurus as the dinosaurian version of Ambulocetus. A fifty-foot, reptilian Ambulocetus.
Stay out of the water.
On a serious note though, it is worth noting that the DNA evidence does show that hippos and cetaceans share a recent common ancestor and swimming is ancestral in that lineage. It's theorized that hippo style bottom-walking was also used by early cetaceans.
It is interesting to think about just how committed to the oceanic lifestyle Spinosaurus was becoming. The Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event was an oceanic anoxic episode, seeing a massive drop in oxygen levels in the oceans. Spinosauridae was the only dinosaur family to go extinct, all other victims of the event were obligate marine groups (Pliosauridae, maybe Icthyosauria, numerous marine invertebrates). Seems too... coincidental? Ibrahim et al even used "early cetacean" to describe some of the skeletal morphology of Spinosaurus.
Who knows, if they hadn't had gone extinct, maybe spinosaurs would've evolved into dino-whales.

I'd pay to see Ahab go up against that thing.