Spinosaurus: Pharaoh of Egyptian Waterways

Alright guys! I wasn't able to upload the photos of what I got for "Christmas" (actually more like New Year's), so I won't be able to show them to you guys yet. Sorry. I'll try again next week! In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a wonderful 2015. If you've made a New Year's resolution, here's my advice: keep it! LOL! My sister is already on the verge of loosing hers.

Days till:

It is: 10 days till Martin Luther King Jr. Day

It is: 24 days till Groundhog's Day
It is: 36 days till St. Valentine's Day

In the Spotlight:

OK, there's not much on Jurassic World or any other movies I've been following this past week, but according to Mercedes-Benz, their company will be not only supporting Jurassic World the movie, but their all-new Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupé will also be in the film! Just check out the pictures below:

Director Colin Trevorrow (the guy on the right) is looking at the Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupé next to the enclosure for Indominus rex (aka Diabolus rex)!

Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupé will be on Isla Nublar, but you're unlikely to find it in the Jurassic World gift shop.

The Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupé will not be one of the vehicles tourists to Jurassic World will ride. It seems to belong to Claire, the park operations manager.

In other news, jurassicworld.org states that they believe the movie's hybrid dinosaur will not be named "Diabolus rex", as most have thought; instead, it seems to have the name of Indominus rex, or "I. rex". With a name like that, I'm not sure I'd like to meet this "I. rex" in person, especially since I probably wouldn't live long enough to tell about it!

Topic of the Week by Christian Ryan

Even since I published my article about how our perception of Spinosaurus has changed over the years, I had no idea it was about to change...again!

Two years ago, I wrote an article about the largest carnivore God has ever assembled: Spinosaurus aegyptiacus. This hyper-carnivore has had an exciting history, which I described in detail in the aforementioned article I wrote. I spoke of how in 1912, this dinosaur's remains were discovered in the desert of Egypt by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer. These fossils – the only ones known to belong to Spinosaurus at the time – were destroyed in World War II, so we were forced to live with nothing more than a few scant remains of this dinosaur. Then I talked about how more fossil discoveries made over the years, and comparisons made in Spinosaurus' relations, like Baryonyx and Suchomimus helped us piece together what this dinosaur was like in life. But as I wrote that article, I had no clue that a new fossil discovery made (but not announced) that same year (2013) would add another chapter to Spinosaurus' story. This new fossil made out Spinosaurus to be even weirder than we ever imagined.

The white bones are the only fossils Stromer discovered from Spinosaurus. No wonder we were dead wrong when it came to knowing what this animal was like in life.

This new chapter to Spinosaurus' story started with paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim. It had been a burning desire of his to find more Spinosaurus fossils to help paleontologists all over the world learn more about this incredible dinosaur. In 2009, he ran into a fossil collector in Morocco who had discovered some small Spinosaurus fossils. Ibrahim was intrigued by the fossils he saw. Later on, Ibrahim recognized these same fossils when they were found in a museum basement of a museum in Milan.

We thought we knew everything about Spinosaurus, the largest predator ever to walk the earth.

In 2013, Ibrahim decided to continue his search for Spinosaurus fossils and was miraculously able to track down the exact same fossil dealer he met before. The fossil dealer led him to the very place he found the spinosaur fossils before and the excavation began! What Ibrahim and his team discovered was the most complete skeleton of Spinosaurus that was ever discovered; they even discovered many bones that were previously not known from this dinosaur, including feet and leg bones. The fossils were brought back to the University of Chicago so Ibrahim, paleontologist Paul Sereno and others were able to reconstruct the entire skeleton of Spinosaurus using fossils from the new specimen, sketches and photographs of Stromer's destroyed specimen, other scant Spinosaurus remains that have been found over the years and fossils from other members of the spinosaur family. What the recent scientific study of this dinosaur revealed, was a very different creature than we once thought!

Baryonyx was just one of Spinosaurus' relatives used to recreate what Spinosaurus actually looked like.

Up until 2013 and 2014, scientists were sure that, like its relatives such as Suchomimus and Baryonyx, Spinosaurus was a bipedal carnivore that terrorized the ancient North African swamps, eating anything from other dinosaurs, to fish, judging by the shape of its claws and teeth. It had a long, crocodile-like jaw, sharp claws on its hands and a row of tall dorsal spines that formed a sail in life. However, the recent discovery revealed that this dinosaur was much more bizarre than we initially believed.

The study re-confirmed what we already knew: that at 50-59 feet long and weighing 7-20 tons, Spinosaurus was the largest terrestrial predator of all time. But it also revealed several new things about this dinosaur. Starting at the head, Spinosaurus possessed nostrils located midway up the snout, rather than at the end like most other dinosaurs. CAT scans on this carnivore's skull revealed that it had nerve and blood channels running through its snout that could likely detect pressure changes in water. This dinosaur also had a long neck and tail. Its legs came as a complete surprise. Considering this dinosaur was an enormous predator, it is easy to assume that it stood upon two strong back legs like its relatives. That's not what Ibrahim and his team found out! The fossil legs of Spinosaurus were rather short, telling the scientists that it really couldn't have walked on its hind legs like other members of the spinosaur family because it was too top heavy. This was the first known quadrupedal (four-legged) dinosaur. But that's not the only thing the scientists noticed about its limbs. Dinosaur arm and leg bones – almost by definition – have a marrow cavity. In other words, they're hollow like the bones of modern birds. Upon closer inspection of Spinosaurus leg and arm bones however, Ibrahim and the other scientists studying the specimen realized that this dinosaur's bones were not hollow – they pretty much solid bone. The reason why most dinosaurs had hollow bones was so that they could have a strong and lightweight skeleton at the same time. Spinosaurus' skeleton was not lightweight, making it seem like this dinosaur wanted to be heavy. Now the scientists studying this animal's bones realized that virtually solid bones are known in animals today that have one thing in common: they're swimmers.

It turned out that the largest terrestrial predator was actually semi-aquatic!

All the evidence seems to point to Spinosaurus being a semi-aquatic dinosaur – the first known in the history of paleontology. Now other semi-aquatic dinosaurs have been proposed in the past, such as hadrosaurs, or duck-billed dinosaurs, and long-necked sauropods, but these dinosaurs' bodies were not designed for a watery lifestyle. Spinosaurus was. It would have terrorized pre-Flood North African lakes, rivers, ponds, marshes and swamps. Here, it was pharaoh of its domain. Its long crocodile-like snout and meat-hook-like claws would have been used to snag fish, crocodiles and other aquatic animals in the water. It used its legs and long tail to help it move swiftly through the water. Its feet were broad, like many creatures that have webbed feet for swimming today, suggesting Spinosaurus also had webbed feet.

Paleontologists now believe Spinosaurus was a semi-aquatic, egg-laying reptile of action...hm, almost like Perry the Platypus! I wonder if there were any dinosaur secret agents in the past... (PHOTO CREDTS)

I'm sure by now you've noticed the seven-foot sail on Spinosaurus back. Ever since the days of Stromer, scientists have pondered over its use, and we still aren't sure. Theories abound, but it was only recently that scientists were able to use CAT scans to look inside the spines that make up Spinosaurus' sail. Thanks to CAT scans, we know several blood vessels ran through the spines. This makes some suggest that this dinosaur used its sail for temperature regulation, like the ears of an African elephant. Blood would have cooled faster in Spinosaurus' sail, meaning that after the blood flowed out of the sail and throughout the rest of the body, the body would cool as a result. Another theory is that it used the sail for display, perhaps to attract potential mates and scare off rival Spinosaurus, or even rival predators. Imagine how imposing a 50-foot animal swimming with a colorful sail sticking out of the water like a shark's fin would be.

Spinosaurus was far larger (in terms of mass and length) than any other theropod, including Carcharodontosaurus (left), Tyrannosaurus (center) and its relative Baryonyx (right). (PHOTO CREDITS)

Knowing that Spinosaurus was probably semi-aquatic also relieves scientists of a long-asked question: you see, North Africa featured several predators during days before the Genesis Flood that is described in the Bible. One of these predators was Carcharodontosaurus, a T. rex-sized carnosaur that lived in this region. Now if Spinosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus ate the same types of food, they would have competed frequently for resources, as there were relatively few herbivorous dinosaurs to choose from. However, as Spinosaurus was primarily a fish-eater, it and Carcharodontosaurus would not have had to compete for food very often.

Carcharodontosaurus would have occasionally competed with Spinosaurus with food.

One of Spinosaurus prey items was a large fish called Onchopristis, a giant sawfish. Like modern sawfish, Onchopristis had a long snout edged with jagged, sharp teeth called denticles. As I have discussed before, we know Spinosaurus hunted this fish because we've found Onchopristis denticles embedded in Spinosaurus jawbones and we've found Spinosaurus teeth jammed in the bones of Onchopristis. This sawfish would have been a dangerous fish for Spinosaurus to catch, but this is why it bore sharp teeth and wicked claws.

This Spinosaurus is on the verge of catching a delicious Onchopristis.

Paleontology never ceases to fascinate me as a young dinosaur enthusiast. Just when we think we know everything about a particular dinosaur, a new fossil discovery comes along, takes what we knew about the dinosaur and turns it upside down. Spinosaurus is definitely one of those dinosaurs! From a terrestrial sail-backed cousin of Allosaurus, this dinosaur “evolved” into a ferocious, semi-aquatic, apex  predator of the water. It must have been an amazing dinosaur to see alive. 2015 is undoubtedly going to be full of new scientific discoveries that will continue to change our perception of these glorious creatures God created.

A pair of Spinosaurus catching fish in the river. (PHOTO CREDITS)

References:

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/spinosaurus

www.news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/09/140911-spinosaurus-fossil-discovery-dinosaur-science

Disclaimer: Many (or in some cases all) of the photographs and images above are not mine. If you own one or more of them and would like them to be removed, politely let me know via one or both of the email addresses above.

The Awesome Spinosaurus: pt. 3 - Meet the Relatives

The weeks pass by quickly don't they? Wow! We're already passed the middle of the year and soon, Christmas songs will be ringing in our heads. So before time slips away, let's get to updates, and then to  this week's non-fiction article.

First of all, I have big news from my stop-motion series Planet of the Dinosaurs that I have been working on for the past several weeks: THE SECOND EPISODE IS FINISHED!!! That's right! I have successfully finished the second episode, The Tropical Poles. So today, I have posted the episode for your viewing enjoyment. You can either, watch the episode first and then read the article, or you can read the article and then watch the episode. Of course, you can also watch it later too. But what ever you decide to do I really hope you like it as much as I did making it. So get ready to travel back in time – 4,900 years into the past – to learn all about the amazing dinosaurs that lived in The Tropical Poles:

Now it's time for this week's non-fiction article:

A size comparison of different members of the spinosaurid group.

Over the past few weeks, we've been learning about the largest carnivorous dinosaur ever to walk the earth: Spinosaurus egyptiacus. And it was a very awesome predator: it had a crocodilian-like jaw, eight-foot arms and nine-inch claws and perhaps its most obvious feature, a seven-foot tall sail on its back. But did you know that Spinosaurus wasn't the only spinosaur in the family. The spinosaur family is home to a host of remarkable dinosaurs, dinosaurs that tried really hard to be crocodiles! Today, we'll wrap up this series on spinosaurs by looking at the different species that are in this family:

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus is the largest carnivore ever to walk the earth.

Spinosaurus: (Since we've already been looking at this monster in great depth over the past several weeks, I'll just run through the basics) Spinosaurus was the largest carnivore ever to walk the earth. At 60 feet from nose to tail and weighing 10 tons, it was a force to be reckoned with. It had sharp nine-inch claws and sharp teeth. The most obvious feature on this dinosaur is the seven-foot tall sail on its back. Scientists are unsure of its use, but it was probably used for display, temperature regulation, fishing apparatus (fish would be attracted to the dark shadow the sail cast on the water), or all three. Despite its large size and awesome strength, Spinosaurus mainly ate fish, such as the 20-foot Onchopristis. Every other animal living in Norther Africa wanted to steer clear of Spinosaurus.

Baryonyx, like its larger cousin, Spinosaurus, mainly ate fish.

Humans are a bit puny compared to Baryonyx!

Baryonyx: This dinosaur is known from almost complete skeletons and is closely related to Spinosaurus; but at 30 feet long, it was about half the size of its larger cousin. Like Spinosaurus, we know Baryonyx mainly ate fish because fish scales were found in a specimen's stomach cavity. Many scientists believe Baryonyx hunted like a grizzly bear, waiting at the riverbank for fish to come close enough before it would sweep the fish from the water with its powerful claws. But this dinosaur might have eaten more than just fish: bones from an ornithopod called Iguanodon have also been discovered within the stomach of Baryonyx, so perhaps other spinosaurs also ate a variety of things besides fish.

Suchomimus is often described as the dinosaur that was "trying hard to be a crocodile".

Suchomimus: Meaning “crocodile mimic”, Suchomimus was definitely crocodile-like in many ways, as was the rest of the spinosaur family. It was a bit larger than its cousin, Baryonyx at around 36 feet long, but it was still no where near the size of Spinosaurus. Unlike Spinosaurus, Suchomimus didn't have a large sail on its back. It was more like a low ridge. As in other members of its family, Suchomimus had a wicked sharp thumb-claw that was probably used to snag slippery fish from the water. It lived in North Africa.

Irritator closely resembled the other members of the spinosaurid group.

Irritator: This dinosaur was officially described in 1996 and is only known from one part of its body – the skull. Its fossils were illegally sold by fossil-poachers in Brazil. The buyers of the Irritator fossils were unaware of the dinosaur's origins in the hands of fossil-poachers. When they received the dinosaur's skull, they realized that the poachers had covered it in plaster to make it look more complete and valuable. The scientists spent a great deal of time trying to restore the skull to its original features and they got so irritated, that they decided to name the dinosaur, Irritator. Since we only have the skull of this creature, scientists have used other spinosaurs as examples to help us figure out what this dinosaur probably looked like. They estimate it to have been 26 feet in length and weighing 2-3 tons.

Oxalaia: This is the last spinosaur that we're going to look at today. This dinosaur was discovered in Brazil and grew 39-46 feet in length and weighed 5-7 tons, making it the largest theropod ever found in Brazil. It was described in 2011.

Spinosaurus was an amazing dinosaur and as we just learned, it had some amazing cousins! It probably hunted on both land and water and used its sail as a temperature regulator, mating display, fishing apparatus or all three. It was the largest predator ever to walk the earth. Yet, while learning more about this amazing beast, we shouldn't loose focus on the fact that even this mighty beast and its relatives were regally designed by a loving and intelligent Creator who made this animal in such a way to thrive in the environment in which it lived.

"Spinosaurus is and was, the biggest meat-eating dinosaur that ever lived." Jack Horner

I hope you have thoroughly enjoyed these past few weeks learning about spinosaurs. I know I have enjoyed writing it. Please be sure to comment on my latest stop-motion movie and the article I wrote! See you next week!

PS: To post a comment (this is highly encouraged), please simply click the post you wish to comment on, scroll to the bottom of the page and put what you wish to say or ask in the comment box. Then in the box below the comment box choose who you’re going to comment as. And then click preview or publish. If you aren’t signed into Google, you’ll be asked to type in a word and a number in the space provided. Type the word, put a space and then put the number. Then your comment is on the blog!

PS 2: Have a puzzling question about animals (including dinosaurs), myself, my latest book, my stop-motion movies, Creation or etc? Please post your question as a comment or send me an email at animaladventures@aol.com.

PS 3: What’s the latest scoop? Check it out at SMILEY’S NEWS.

PS 4: Be sure to comment on the latest stop-motion movies too, this will help me improve them.

The Awesome Spinosaurs: pt. 2 - Their Behavior

Welcome back folks! As usual, I'll presume with updates before getting to today's non-fiction article, written by yours truly!

Howdy folks! Welcome back to my website. I've got a lot of cool updates before we get to the main article, so let's get started!

The second episode of my stop-motion series Planet of the Dinosaurs, called The Tropical Poles, is coming along greatly so far! It has reached 75%! I'm not sure it will be finished by the end of this month, but hopefully by the end of the first week next month. Lord willing!

As many of you might already know, the latest Pixar release, Monsters University, just went into theaters on the 21^st of this month. I haven't had the opportunity to see it yet, but I'll probably be able to when it comes out on DVD or on Netflix. I can't wait! 

Here's a clip from the movie:

So what is Pixar working on next? Well, their next movie, coming out next summer is called The Good Dinosaur. They haven't released much on an actual plot, but here's a basic overview of the project:

They are kind of cartoony but they are dinosaurs; they are not walking around with clothes on or anything like that, they still are kind of dinosaurs. We focused on mostly the plant-eaters, not the carnivores… Their society becomes more of an agrarian society, meaning farmers. They become farmers. It’s a very funny story about a certain way of life that a young dinosaur has trouble fitting into and he ends up going on this quest. He kind of messes up and he has to put everything right by going on this quest and on that quest he meets this our character that is an outcast from his society too and so the two of them form this bond and it becomes this unique kind of story…

Last week, I mentioned that another movie I'm looking forward is the release of the movie known as Jurassic Park IV. If you've read last week's article, you'll remember that this movie's new release date appears to be 2015 based on a teaser banner at the Licensing Expo 2013. This past week, I've literally crisscrossed the internet to see if this date is correct, and it seems valid, so we'll assume this is the new date. That's not the only piece of news everyone has been talking about concerning this film! We even have a potential plot! (SPOILER ALERT: this “spoiler” you're about to read would reveal about as much information if you were watching a trailer, but if you don't want to know anything about the movie yet, please skip this update) Jobio.com has apparently learned the plot of JPIV through an unknown source. This could be exactly what we fans have been waiting for! Here's what Jobio.com had to say about the possible plot for the upcoming movie:

JURASSIC PARK 4, set in present day Isla Nublar, is now an actual theme park, as originally intended by John Hammond in the first film. It garners 10 million visitors per year and is completely safe - until it's not. The park itself is described as very Sea World-esque and includes an area called the Isla Nublar Lagoon. That means underwater dino's for the first time. No indication of what kind, but there's concept art showing one of the aquatic dino's, as part of a show, jumping out of the lagoon and eating a strung up great white shark like it was a fish for a dolphin at sea world.

As part of a show, you ask? That's right, folks, this will feature "tamed" dino's. In fact, our source indicated that the usually menacing Velociraptors (which will finally be muzzled, along with the T-Rex - until they're not) will actually be used to help fight the threat, which begins in the form of a new dinosaur, not seen in any of the previous films (and not disclosed to us) shows to be much smarter than originally thought and is the main cause of havoc breaking out at the park.

So, to sum it all up, JURASSIC PARK 4 will take place back on Isla Nublar with a fully operational dinosaur theme park (I'm sure no expense was spared) that's both prosperous and safe, until a new dinosaur figures out a way to wreak havoc, causing the use of the now tamed Velociraptors (and T-Rex? Unclear) as a means to fighting the threat.

Well, if you ask me, this plot is a great idea! However, we must keep in mind that this rumor may or may not have any fact behind it. It is believed by some that this plot description appears to be from the script before the “major changes” were made. So perhaps this plot is inaccurate, but we don't know for sure yet. We also don't know what people or dinosaurs will be appearing in the movie for sure, yet (although Velociraptors and T. rex have a 99.99% chance of being present regardless of whether this plot is the real thing). But if the plot Jobio.com has is accurate, we should be seeing, not only raptors, but also the longed for marine reptiles (maybe a gnarly Tylosaurus mosasaur will make an appearence) as well, AND also the “new scary dinosaur” that's been talked about for a long time can be seen coming into play. For now, this assumed plot is all we know, as Universal hasn't told us their plot yet. But I think it's time to officially say, “The exploration back to Isla Nublar is about to begin!”

Now to get to today's non-fiction article:

As you might recall from my post two weeks ago, we looked at the history of the discovery of the largest carnivorous dinosaur to ever walk the earth: the 60-foot long, ten-ton Spinosaurus. Last time, we learned that the first Spinosaurus remains ever found were uncovered in Northern Africa and were accidentally destroyed in World War II. A few other Spinosaurus fossils have been found since they were destroyed, but they're far from completion. So paleontologists look to Spinosaurus' relatives – other members of the spinosaur family and modern-day animals for clues. First, let's look at one of the most obvious questions: what did Spinosaurus prey on?

The skeleton of Spinosaurus

We humans are puny compared to this beast!

While we know Spinosaurus ate plants in the world before Man's rebellion against God, which brought death and sin into the world. But what about its diet after the Fall of Man? Well, to find an animal's diet, we must obviously start looking at the mouth and at the teeth. An animal's teeth alone doesn't actually tell you how it behaved or what it ate, but it can give us clues and starting points. The teeth of Spinosaurus are conical-shaped and sharp, somewhat different from your typical theropod dinosaur, which have sharp and serrated teeth. The teeth of spinosaurs resembles not any other dinosaur, but of a different reptile, one still patrolling the waterways of the 21^st century: crocodiles! Crocodiles also have sharp and conical-shaped teeth, so by learning how and what crocs mainly eat can give us insight into what dinosaurs, such as Spinosaurus ate. Crocodiles, while antelope and zebra are popular choices, often eat fish, and their conical-shaped teeth are perfect for gripping onto these slippery meals. Does this suggest Spinosaurus ate . . . fish?!? Believe it or not, the 10-ton predator actually probably hunted fish. We have more evidence to back this up. When looking at the teeth of modern-day animals that have similar teeth to prehistoric, we learn that we can guess what prehistoric animals ate. The same often applies with features God “installed” into this creature. The six-foot skull of Spinosaurus is shaped like a crocodile's skull. Perhaps the skull of Spinosaurus is crocodile-like for the exact same reason crocodile skulls are crocodile-like. Like modern crocodiles, Spinosaurus has its eyes and nostrils higher up on the skull. This would help when it was fishing because it could have its jaws half-submerged in the water and still breathe at the same time.

The skull of a crocodile

The skull of Spinosaurus bears great resemblance to that of a crocodile's

When scientists took a close look at the skull of Spinosaurus, they realized that there were a bunch of little pits and holes on the end of the snout. Once again, scientists compared the skull of Spinosaurus with the skull of a modern crocodile and bingo! Crocodiles also have pits and little holes on their snouts. What are they used for? Well, in crocodiles, the pits are attached to sensitive nerve endings. These nerve endings can detect movement in the water so even if a crocodile can't see its prey, it can feel the disturbance in the water and know where the prey is. Perhaps Spinosaurus could stick its snout into the water and feel the water movements of fish below the surface. Does the notion of the 60-foot long Spinosaurus eating mainly fish seem a bit strange to you? After all, how could this huge hyper-carnivore sustain itself on fish? The answer is that many of the fish in pre-Flood Northern Africa (which was much wetter and swampy than today) were huge! Some fish, such as the a type of giant sawfish called Onchopristis, grew over 24 feet in length! That's what I call “catch of the day”! We even have evidence that Spinosaurus hunted Onchopristis in particular: an Onchopristis fossil has been found with Spinosaurus teeth embedded in it.

Onchopristis looked just like this modern sawfish, just a lot bigger!

And Spinosaurus also had a weapon that no crocodile has: arms that were probably over eight-feet in length and ended in nine-inch dagger-like claws! These claws would be useful in helping haul the mighty fish out of the water so Spinosaurus could chow down.

To help you visualize a fishing Spinosaurus, take a look at this clip from the BBC television series called Planet Dinosaur, in which a Spinosaurus catches the big whopper in the river – Onchopristis!

This series is one of my favorites, I hope you enjoy it:

Did you know that Spinosaurus' diet wasn't restricted to giant fish? Fossil remains of the closely related Baryonyx found in Europe, contains the bones of an herbivorous dinosaur called Iguanodon, and a fossil pterosaur, or flying reptile bone in Brazil contains the tooth of a spinosaur. Judging by the position of the tooth, we can tell that the pterosaur was probably attacked by the spinosaur. So spinosaurs including Spinosaurus not only were hunters of water, but they were also ferocious predators on land as well. Scientists estimate that Spinosaurus could run over 20 mph, and that's faster than most of us can run! So if Spinosaurus is coming for you and unless you're an Olympic sprinter, you'd better learn how to hide!

Spinosaurus was a ferocious predator on land AND in the water!

Now it's time to examine the most obvious mystery of Spinosaurus: what exactly put the spine in Spinosaurus? Actually, perhaps I'd better reword that to: what exactly did that sail of Spinosaurus do in life? Unfortunately for us, no animal alive today has a sail quite like Spinosaurus, so we can't really make a comparison. The sail on Spinosaurus' back was about six to seven feet tall and was made up of the creature's backbone. What was it for? Well, many scientists believe that the sail was littered with blood vessels, kind of like the ears of an elephant or a hare. The blood flowing through the sail would have had temperature changes much faster than the rest of the body. If Spinosaurus needed to cool down, cool air would cool the blood in the sail and then this now-cool blood would flow through the rest of the dinosaur's body. Therefore it would cool down the Spinosaurus. The same would work, if the animal wanted to warm up, but instead of air, it would use the heat of the sun. Even if Spinosaurus was a warm-blooded creature, the ability to cool itself down rapidly would have been helpful for the creature. Isn't God ingenious?

Some scientists believe that, instead of trying to stay cool, the sail of Spinosaurus was a way for males to look cool. Perhaps, like many other animals, Spinosaurus had wacky body equipment for display purposes. Many modern insects, mammals, birds and reptiles use weird and wonderful displays to impress potential mates.

Another theory is that Spinosaurus used the sail during fishing. How did it do that? Some species of herons today use their wings to create an umbrella-like shape, casting a shadow on the water. Fish are attracted to the shadow, but little do they know that they're swimming right into range of the heron's beak and SNAP! The heron gulps down a fish. Perhaps the sail of Spinosaurus also attracted fish and could help this dinosaur catch its prey. And who knows? Considering no one around today has seen a living Spinosaurus, who's to say it didn't use its sail in all the ways mentioned? We may never know, but it's a possibility!

What do you think Spinosaurus used its sail for?

Alas, it is time to end our time together for this week. Be sure to come back next week and you can read Joy's latest article. The week after that is when we can delve into the conclusion of my series on spinosaurs, some of the weirdest dinosaurs that ever lived! Hope to see you next week, bye for now and God bless you!

PS: To post a comment (this is highly encouraged), please simply click the post you wish to comment on, scroll to the bottom of the page and put what you wish to say or ask in the comment box. Then in the box below the comment box choose who you’re going to comment as. And then click preview or publish. If you aren’t signed into Google, you’ll be asked to type in a word and a number in the space provided. Type the word, put a space and then put the number. Then your comment is on the blog!

PS 2: Have a puzzling question about animals (including dinosaurs), myself, my latest book, my stop-motion movies, Creation or etc? Please post your question as a comment or send me an email at animaladventures@aol.com.

PS 3: What’s the latest scoop? Check it out at SMILEY’S NEWS.

PS 4: Be sure to comment on the latest stop-motion movies too, this will help me improve them.

The Awesome Spinosaurs pt 1. - History

Hello, everyone! Welcome back! Lately, I'll admit that I haven't been working on the my latest stop-motion series episode, "Planet of the Dinosaurs: The Tropical Poles." But this coming week, I'll be back on it! I still hope to get it complete by the end of this month.

With my one and only update out of the way, here's today's non-fiction article. I hope you learn a lot from it:

When I say “dinosaur”, what comes to mind? Perhaps the horned and frilled Triceratops, or the plated Stegosaurus, or maybe the long-necked sauropods. What about when I say “name me the largest carnivorous dinosaur you can think of”. Most would undoubtedly say, “Tyrannosaurus rex”, and indeed, T. rex is a force to be reckoned with. It's big, bad and has a four-foot long jaw with 13-inch teeth. But there are so many other theropods (a dinosaur of a group whose members are bipedal and range from small and delicately built to very large, most ate meat) that the general public doesn't no about. Henry Fairfield Osborn, the president of the America Museum of Natural History gave T. rex its name, which means “Tyrant Lizard King”, in 1905. Ever since its discovery, it became the most famous dinosaur of all. This 43-foot long menace was thought to be the largest carnivore ever to walk the earth, and it stayed that way until the 1990's. Scientists started finding larger and larger carnivores, but the biggest of all was discovered a fairly long time ago. It's name is – Spinosaurus aegypticus. But this monster went through a lot of “hard times” before it earned the title. Come along for the ride as we learn more about one of the strangest dinosaur you've probably never heard of!

Spinosaurus aegypticus, the largest carnivore ever to walk the earth!

The first fossils of this strange dinosaur were discovered in Bahariya Formation in western Egypt in 1912 by paleontologist and German aristocrat Ernst Stromer – seven years after T. rex was named. The fossils of this dinosaur he found were far from a complete skeleton, but they were enough to tell him that he'd found and completely new species. The only bones he found was a long skull, some teeth and some tall  vertebrae, many up to 165 cm long! Stromer believed, as many of today's scientists, that these supported a large sail that stood six to seven feet tall!

Some vertebrae of Spinosaurus stood over six feet tall!

In 1915, he named the creature Spinosaurus aegypticus, which apply means “Spine Lizard from Egypt,” after those spines on its back. Stromer shipped the bones to a museum in Munich, Germany for a special exhibition. He also argued that Spinosaurus was much larger than T. rex. Unfortunately for Stromer, his fossils didn't have long to be around. Why?

Well, I guess you could say human history collided with prehistory. Something terrible happened to the museum the Spinosaurus was being held in. During World War II, the Nazi headquarters were right in front of the museum with our Spino fossils, so on the tragic day of April 24, 1944, the Nazi headquarters were bombed, along with the first Spinosaurus skeleton ever found. That's not all they blew up either; along with the Spinosaurus remains were the fossils of another creature Stromer discovered, called Carcharodontosaurus. All that remain of the original Spinosaurus remains are Stromer's detailed sketches, descriptions and photographs.

Without a Spinosaurus skeleton, scientists weren't quite sure about this dinosaur. They couldn't make an accurate depiction of this beast. For the next 31 years, Spinosaurus' trail would be as cold as an ice cube in the middle of Antarctica. During this time, Spinosaurus was depicted as a four-legged, quadrupedal carnosaur with a sail on its back and four-fingered hands. Carnosaurs such as the relatively famous Allosaurus are dinosaurs with more roundish skulls. The only way scientists would be able to get a more complete picture of this dinosaur would be to find a “missing link”, not like the fictional missing links in evolutionary dogma, but the missing link that connects us to knowing more about this dinosaur.

Stromer's sketch of Spinosaurus' jawbone.

Finally, in 1983, scientists got a “lucky” break. An amatuer fossil hunter named William Walker discovered the hand claw of a dinosaur later named Baryonyx. Now when scientists uncovered the almost complete specimen of this new dinosaur, they finally realized that they had seen many of the bones in Baryonyx in another dinosaur: Spinosaurus! And indeed, after fully describing the bones, it became clear that Spinosaurus and Baryonyx are closely related. Unlike many of the drawings and pictures of Spinosaurus after the original specimen was destroyed, Baryonyx had a crocodile-like snout with conical-shaped teeth. These two animals were not carnosaurs at all. They are so different that scientists placed them in their own family (or possibly “baramin” in baraminology): the “spinosaurids”, or “spinosaurs.”

The skeleton of Baryonyx bears much resemblance to the skeleton of Spinosaurus

Thanks to Baryonyx, we now can be pretty sure of what Spinosaurus looked like

As if that weren't enough, more spinosaurids were being discovered in Europe and northern Africa. And if THAT weren't enough, in 1996, another Spinosaurus specimen was dug up in the Kem Kem Beds of northern Morocco, Africa by the paleontologist Paul Sereno and his team. By 2002, The Civic Natual History Museum in Milan obtained a skull of Spinosaurus and Cristiano Dal Sasso and his team of colleagues studied the fossils of Spinosaurus extensively. They found out many things about Spinosaurus that scientists never knew about before, but perhaps one of the most astounding things they learned about Spinosaurus was that Stromer was right all those years ago about the size of this animal - it was bigger than T. rex. In fact, as 59 feet long, it was the largest carnivorous dinosaur ever to walk the earth!

A size comparison of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs (PHOTO CREDITS)

I hope you enjoyed learning about the history of Spinosaurus. But we're far from done learning about this beast, there's much, much more! Next week, be sure to come back to this site and read my friend Joy's article and the week after that, we'll learn some more about the largest killer ever to walk the earth.

So long for now!

PS: To post a comment (this is highly encouraged), please simply click the post you wish to comment on, scroll to the bottom of the page and put what you wish to say or ask in the comment box. Then in the box below the comment box choose who you’re going to comment as. And then click preview or publish. If you aren’t signed into Google, you’ll be asked to type in a word and a number in the space provided. Type the word, put a space and then put the number. Then your comment is on the blog!

PS 2: Have a puzzling question about animals (including dinosaurs), myself, my latest book, my stop-motion movies, Creation or etc? Please post your question as a comment or send me an email at animaladventures@aol.com.

PS 3: What’s the latest scoop? Check it out at SMILEY’S NEWS.

PS 4: Be sure to comment on the latest stop-motion movies too, this will help me improve them.