New Spinosaurus Restoration!

[stargatedalek]

Exactly what Spinosaurus needed, another part of it that everyone can shrink wrap without providing reason to do so

Not saying a "spiderweb" sail for Spinosaurus on either the tail or torso is impossible, but I don't see sufficient evidence for it to the point where it should be used as the norm. Even if this feature was not supporting large amounts of musculature or fat that doesn't mean the bones should be visible and just coated loosely with skin.

[Concavenator]

Wow, interesting news! But it makes sense that it had that tail. Guess this makes it more difficult to imagine a Spinosaurus moving on land.
What I´m really surprised by, though, is that Papo got it right with their model on that aspect (they got it wrong on other aspects though  ), specially when the tail was the very thing many of us laughed at last year 

[Loon]

If Papo was right about this, who knows what else they could be right about?

Maybe Giganotosaurus could only stand up like their figure?

Maybe Polacanthus has weird inner toes?

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Yeah  I think you guys are giving Papo too much credit. So they lucked out with a weird feature, yes it's flattened, but Papo's still looks like a Spino-coelocanth hybrid. It's too fish-like.

[paintingdinos]

I think people tend to be too harsh on any company that ops to take a more speculative approach to models.

Things like this are a good reminder that few things are set in stone, especially with animals we don't have full skeletons of. Its less about Papo being right or wrong than it is about criticizing anything that's different from the norm.

Its totally fine to not like the way something looks, even if is is "accurate" or semi-accurate. There are plenty of extant animals that I don't like the look of and wouldn't want to own a model of lol.

[suspsy]

I'd love to know what this latest discovery says about how Spinosaurus moved about on land. If that tail really is a swimming adaptation, then perhaps Spinosaurus had evolved to a point where it simply wasn't a very good walker at all, nor did it need to be one. Maybe it was like a pinniped or a crocodilian and spent most of its time sprawled on its belly, only rising up and moving when it really needed to.

[Faelrin]

@Blade-of-the-Moon Yeah Papo's isn't quite the right shape, or even the right type of fin for that matter, and still has a few other issues (lack of weight bearing first digit, proportion issues, etc) but I do think it's cool for them to think of something similar to this before any evidence along these lines was published.

Now I wonder how long will we wait before a new figure with this revised tail shows up on the market? Will CollectA once again be the first to do so? I mean they wasted no time with de-feathering their T. rex, so I don't see why not.

@suspsy I am certainly wondering this as well. Has anyone been able to read the paper and see if it discusses this at all? At least both @Doug Watson here and CollectA had the right idea by depicting their figures in a swimming pose, which is easily the safest bet, even more so now with this new discovery of the tail fin.


Also Doug, if you don't mind me asking, is it possible for you and/or Safari Ltd to release a revised version of the 2019 Spinosaurus down the road taking into account this discovery? Or would a new sculpt altogether be better? I'm just curious about how this whole thing would go since it's definitely a major revelation, in comparison to the situation with the Edmontosaurus, for instance (although that was still an important discovery it isn't quite as drastic as this is). On that note I would also be curious if the product description for the 2019 one will be revised to make mention of this new discovery?

I'm also wondering since you did sculpt a figure that was as accurate as it could be at the time, is the timing of this discovery exciting or frustrating for you? Or perhaps a bit of both?

[triceratops83]

I'd love to see the discovery of a latest cretaceous streamlined spinosaur, totally adapted to the sea, its' sail a dorsal fin.

[Sarapaurolophus]

Yeah  I think you guys are giving Papo too much credit. So they lucked out with a weird feature, yes it's flattened, but Papo's still looks like a Spino-coelocanth hybrid. It's too fish-like.

The fishiness is what appeals to me in that case. The Spino's snout always reminded be of a gar. Huge gar with feet.

I wonder of that figure will sell out now thanks to these news.

[EarthboundEiniosaurus]

@Faelrin, a cursory glance seems to suggest they don't talk about terrestrial capabilities at all, only focusing on aquatic adaptations. Paper is open access and was posted upthread if you want to investigate yourself.

[stargatedalek]

I don't agree that the Papo Spinosaurus is speculative. It's about as conservative as possible, they stuck as close to the skeleton as they could, introducing "new" ideas only in what they thought would make it look more traditionally cinematic.

A speculative depiction is one that is introducing new features that are based on a new idea of how the animal looked or behaved, not specifically searching for excuses to re-introduce old features or pop-culture allusions.

A speculative reconstruction would be something like Spinosaurus giving live birth like some snakes or sharks, having bioluminescent patterns for mating displays at night, or a throat pouch for pelican-like feeding.

I'd love to know what this latest discovery says about how Spinosaurus moved about on land. If that tail really is a swimming adaptation, then perhaps Spinosaurus had evolved to a point where it simply wasn't a very good walker at all, nor did it need to be one. Maybe it was like a pinniped or a crocodilian and spent most of its time sprawled on its belly, only rising up and moving when it really needed to.

I would say even that is unlikely. Spinosaurus probably spent most of its time in the ocean, returning to the mangrove coasts we know their fossils from to leave the young in a sheltered area.

[Kapitaenosavrvs]

I really look forward to the Releases the next Years. Don't be too harsh on the Companys. This is typical Internet behavior. It's so simple to criticise and theres more than one ppl involved in the process of new Figures.
I know, that a lot of ppl overseas kind of hate the Papo Spinosaurus, mostly because of its Price, plus shipping and a bot because of the differnet Paintjob. At least it seems like that. Before that everyone saw the sculpt and was like "OH YES!" The Downgrade of Essiens Paintjob was far worse to my opinion. But, this is an old story everyone already had enough.

I love these Spinosaurus news, but since i talked about criticism: What the hell. My eyes hurt, when i see this. To a point this looks okay, but this looks nothing streamlined or plausible to cut it like that. Was it just to show it better to the People? Should Doug do a new Spinosaurus for Safari, i have trust in him to make it wonderful and overall great. Also, it does not need to be this big. I kind of like these smaller sized CollectAs, eg. swimming Spinosaurus.



This was done really quick, just to show my Sadness

[Shadowknight1]

I love that this critter is being fleshed out more with each new discovery.  It's such a weird animal, and I love it for that.

[Doug Watson]

@Blade-of-the-Moon Yeah Papo's isn't quite the right shape, or even the right type of fin for that matter, and still has a few other issues (lack of weight bearing first digit, proportion issues, etc) but I do think it's cool for them to think of something similar to this before any evidence along these lines was published.

Now I wonder how long will we wait before a new figure with this revised tail shows up on the market? Will CollectA once again be the first to do so? I mean they wasted no time with de-feathering their T. rex, so I don't see why not.

@suspsy I am certainly wondering this as well. Has anyone been able to read the paper and see if it discusses this at all? At least both @Doug Watson here and CollectA had the right idea by depicting their figures in a swimming pose, which is easily the safest bet, even more so now with this new discovery of the tail fin.


Also Doug, if you don't mind me asking, is it possible for you and/or Safari Ltd to release a revised version of the 2019 Spinosaurus down the road taking into account this discovery? Or would a new sculpt altogether be better? I'm just curious about how this whole thing would go since it's definitely a major revelation, in comparison to the situation with the Edmontosaurus, for instance (although that was still an important discovery it isn't quite as drastic as this is). On that note I would also be curious if the product description for the 2019 one will be revised to make mention of this new discovery?

I'm also wondering since you did sculpt a figure that was as accurate as it could be at the time, is the timing of this discovery exciting or frustrating for you? Or perhaps a bit of both?

Can't say, that would be up to Safari Ltd. If they did want me to do it I don't see why I couldn't modify my original and just change the tail. I am happy with the rest including the flattened claws on the feet that no one reviewing my piece has mentioned but were detailed in the paper and as far as I have seen no one else has replicated. The way things are today I would be happy sculpting anything.

[suspsy]

@Doug Watson, I for one would certainly buy a version with an updated tail!

[Shonisaurus]

Doug I would buy you an updated version of Papo's spinosaurus, also as many DTF members comment. I'm sure you would make the best spinosaurus ever made by a brand of toy dinosaurs. Safari is one of the best toy dinosaur brands.

[The Prehistoric Traveler]

Call me spino-ignorant (because i am), but how much of this animal's remains were actually found? What's with all the speculation? And what's the evidence this tail actually belongend to a spinosaurus?

[suspsy]

Call me spino-ignorant (because i am), but how much of this animal's remains were actually found? What's with all the speculation? And what's the evidence this tail actually belongend to a spinosaurus?

It belongs to the same specimen that was uncovered back in 2014. For all the skepticism, disbelief, and even derision that has been thrown at Nizar Ibrahim's restoration, there hasn't been a single paleontological publication that refutes it in all this time. The closest was in 2018 when Donald Henderson proposed that Spinosaurus was a poor swimmer, but in light of this latest news, he's apparently rethinking his calculations.

[Over9K]

I suppose it's too late in the process for Rebor to update the upcoming GNG Spino with the new tail...


This really puts the final Harryhausen on the JPIII Spino...

[Flaffy]

I love these Spinosaurus news, but since i talked about criticism: What the hell. My eyes hurt, when i see this. To a point this looks okay, but this looks nothing streamlined or plausible to cut it like that.

I mean, these exist:



And paper skeletals don't tend to be the best, it being in an action pose rather than a neutral one probably contributes to the weirdness as well