40 Fun Facts About Spinosaurus

In Jurassic Park III, Spinosaurus wins a fight by breaking the neck of which famous rival dinosaur?

Tyrannosaurus had been the star of the first two films. Jurassic World later answered back: its T. rex smashes straight through a Spinosaurus skeleton.

The original Spinosaurus fossils were destroyed in 1944 when bombs fell on a museum in which German city?

Munich was hit by a British air raid on the night of 24–25 April 1944. The museum's director, a fervent Nazi at odds with the man who named the bones, had not moved them to safety.

A 2020 study of fossils from the Kem Kem beds showed that Spinosaurus had a tail shaped like what?

A paddle: tall, thin spines above and below made the tail deep and narrow, like a newt's. In experiments it gave eight times the thrust of a land-living predator's tail.

Scientists often compare the long, low, narrow skull of Spinosaurus to that of which living reptile?

A crocodile is the usual comparison for the long, low snout. Its tip flared out to hold a cluster of extra-large teeth.

Spinosaurus lived in North Africa about 100 to 94 million years ago, during which geological period?

Cretaceous North Africa was a land of rivers and tidal flats. Spinosaurus lived there in the Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous.

The 1912 bones from which Spinosaurus was named were dug up at the Bahariya Oasis in which country?

Egypt is honoured in the full species name, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus. A hired fossil collector dug the bones from the oasis in the autumn of 1912.

Spinosaurus, with its long body and tall sail, has long been a contender for which record among dinosaurs?

Largest meat-eater is a title it has disputed with Giganotosaurus and others. A 2022 study put Spinosaurus at up to 14 metres long and about 7.4 tonnes.

The 2014 reconstruction of Spinosaurus caused a stir by proposing that it moved on land in which way?

On all fours was the 2014 team's answer, because the animal's weight seemed to sit too far forward. Later studies moved the balance point back to the hips and stood it upright again.

Besides showing off to rivals and mates, what is the other main job proposed for the sail of Spinosaurus?

Controlling body heat could work both ways: a sail rich in blood vessels might soak up warmth, or be turned to a cooling wind to shed it.

Jurassic World Rebirth shows a pack of Spinosaurus hunting at sea alongside which giant marine reptile?

Mosasaurus and the Spinosaurus pack attack a ship together. The film redesigned Spinosaurus with a much broader tail, to reflect research pointing to a life spent largely in water.

Which German palaeontologist named Spinosaurus in 1915, then lost the fossils to wartime bombing?

Ernst Stromer was an aristocrat and an open critic of Nazism, which damaged his career. Much of what his expeditions brought back from the Sahara was lost in a single night.

The sail of Spinosaurus was held up by spines, some over 1.6 metres tall, growing from which bones?

Vertebrae of the back carried spines that reached more than ten times the height of the bone beneath them. Those spines gave the animal its name, which means 'spine lizard'.

Which sail-backed animal, often mistaken for a dinosaur, died out long before Spinosaurus appeared?

Dimetrodon vanished some 40 million years before the first dinosaurs and is a closer relative of mammals than of reptiles. Its sail and the one on Spinosaurus evolved separately.

Spinosaurus has been called its era's version of which big mammal, a keen fisher that also scavenges?

Grizzly bear suits a hunter that favoured fishing but turned down little. Spinosaurus probably scavenged too, and took small and medium-sized prey of many kinds.

A 2024 study likened the skull and hunting style of Spinosaurus to which long-billed fishing bird?

A heron wades and strikes at prey from above the water, and the skull measurements of Spinosaurus sat closest to wading birds. The rival view has it diving after its prey.

One 2015 study proposed Spinosaurus slapped the water with its tail to stun prey, like which shark?

Thresher sharks whip their long tails through shoals to stun fish before eating them. The same study likened the sail of Spinosaurus to a sailfish's fin, raised to herd prey.

Unlike the serrated blades of most big predatory dinosaurs, the teeth of Spinosaurus were what shape?

Cone-shaped and straight, they had few or no serrations. The second and third teeth on each side of the snout tip were noticeably larger than the rest.

A 2009 CT scan suggested that pits in the snout of Spinosaurus led to receptors sensing what?

Water pressure sensors would let Spinosaurus rest its snout at the surface and feel prey swimming past without seeing it. The pits all opened into one space inside the snout.

A 2022 study found Spinosaurus had unusually dense bones, a trait thought to help an animal do what?

Stay underwater: heavy bones work as ballast, and the study took them as a sign that Spinosaurus dived after prey. Its relative Suchomimus had hollower bones and probably kept to shallow water.

Which fish-eating relative of Spinosaurus was found by an amateur collector in a Surrey clay pit?

Baryonyx was found by a plumber, William Walker, who first spotted a single huge claw. Fish scales in its stomach region made it the first predatory dinosaur shown to have eaten fish.

The Spinosaurus skeleton that rewrote the textbooks in 2014 came from the Kem Kem beds of which country?

Morocco supplied the skeleton described in 2014, a not-quite-adult animal. Its first bones surfaced in 2008 with a fossil collector in the town of Erfoud.

Irritator and Oxalaia, close relatives of Spinosaurus, were found across the Atlantic in which country?

Brazil has given science Irritator, Angaturama and Oxalaia. Some researchers suspect Oxalaia is simply Spinosaurus itself under another name.

A 1997 study argued the tall back spines of Spinosaurus supported not a thin sail but what?

A fatty hump for storing energy became known as the 'buffalo-back' hypothesis. The man who first described Spinosaurus had floated the same thought back in 1915.

Researchers in 2014 said skin clung tightly to the sail spines of Spinosaurus, as on which crested lizard?

A chameleon with a crest was the model. The spines were compact and sharp-edged and probably had a poor blood supply, so a thin covering of skin seemed likeliest.

After the first Spinosaurus skeleton was destroyed, what donated in 1995 let scientists study it again?

Photographs of the mounted bones came from the son of the man who named Spinosaurus. A 2006 study of them found the original 1915 drawings were slightly inaccurate.

Which palaeontologist, adviser on Jurassic Park III, persuaded its makers to make Spinosaurus the star?

Jack Horner argued that the series' old star was more of a scavenger and Spinosaurus a true predator.

A 2010 study found the oxygen chemistry of Spinosaurus teeth was closest to that of which animals?

Turtles spend their lives in and around water, and so, the study argued, did Spinosaurus. Teeth of other big predatory dinosaurs from the same rocks gave different readings.

The rocks that hold Spinosaurus puzzle scientists by containing unusually few of which kind of dinosaur?

Plant-eaters are oddly scarce beside the many big carnivores. One answer is that the hunters split the menu, with Spinosaurus taking fish while its rivals took land animals.

Fossil leaves and roots show that the Bahariya home of Spinosaurus was which kind of habitat?

Mangrove swamp of the tree fern Weichselia fringed wide tidal flats there. The waters teemed with sharks, saw-snouted rays and giant bony fish.

Spinosaurus belongs to which major dinosaur group, which also includes Allosaurus and Giganotosaurus?

Theropods include the other giant predators too, but Spinosaurus broke the mould, with reduced hips and legs very short for its body.

Which palaeontologist tracked down a fossil dealer to learn where a new Spinosaurus skeleton was dug up?

Nizar Ibrahim had first been shown bones from the skeleton in 2008. National Geographic later named his Spinosaurus find one of the top 20 scientific discoveries of the decade.

Long toes and flat-bottomed claws like a shorebird's hint that the feet of Spinosaurus had what?

Webbing between the toes is the suggestion, on feet built for crossing soft, unstable ground. Jurassic World Rebirth gave its Spinosaurus webbed feet to match.

A 2022 study concluded that Spinosaurus killed its prey with what kind of bite?

Fast and snapping jaws that shut with little muscle effort are common in animals that feed in and around water. The study put the bite at the back of the jaws at 11,936 newtons.

A spinosaur tooth lodged in a fossil backbone shows relatives of Spinosaurus sometimes ate which animals?

Pterosaurs were on the menu at least once: a spinosaur tooth, most likely Irritator's, was stuck in the backbone of one of these flying reptiles. Spinosaurs did not live on fish alone.

Whose effects studio built the 13-ton Spinosaurus animatronic used for close-ups in Jurassic Park III?

Stan Winston and his team built it only from the knees up; full-body shots were computer-generated. The machine was powerful enough to be considered dangerous on set.

Which saw-snouted fish has turned up beside Spinosaurus jaws and is often shown as its prey?

Onchopristis barbs and Spinosaurus teeth even form a bone bed together in the Kem Kem beds. Despite its saw, it was a sawskate, up to about four metres long, not a true sawfish.

North Africa in the time of Spinosaurus lay on the shore of which long-vanished sea?

Tethys Sea waters turned the region into a coast of vast tidal flats and waterways. Inland, the rivers were fresh enough for lungfish.

Which sail-backed herbivorous dinosaur lived in the same region millions of years before Spinosaurus?

Ouranosaurus, found in Niger, was an early relative of the duck-billed dinosaurs. Its name can be read as 'brave lizard'.

Two teeth found on an 1898 French expedition, later credited to Spinosaurus, came from which modern country?

Algeria may therefore hold the first Spinosaurus find, made fourteen years before the famous skeleton. The teeth were first taken for a fish's, and have since been lost.

Which Jurassic Park III director wanted Spinosaurus for a silhouette audiences would instantly see as new?

Joe Johnston felt too many dinosaurs shared one outline, and the sail fixed that. He was the first director of the series other than Steven Spielberg.