Stock Dinosaurs: True Dinosaurs: Difference between revisions
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Lived in Northern Africa from 112 to 97 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period. At present, this is the best candidate for usurping the royal title from ''T. rex''.
''Spinosaurus'' is one of the most recognizable theropods with its 5ft / 1.5 m tall spines on its back. In the most common interpretation the spines form a "sail" similar to that of the non-dinosaur ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Dimetrodon]]''. Some suggest they could also have formed a hump, but [https://web.archive.org/web/20130617152939/http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosaur/2011/06/was-spinosaurus-a-bison-backed-dinosaur/ this is unlikely]. A sail could have been useful as a thermoregulating device and/or a display tool, and a hump could have been for display, making the animal seem larger.
''Spinosaurus'' was first described in 1915 by a German paleontologist, but its remains are very scanty: its skull is incomplete, and we have ''no limb bones''. In older drawings ''Spinosaurus'' had a tyrannosaur-like head; today it is generally accepted that it was crocodile-headed. Due to the fragmentary nature of its remains, the actual overall size is in debate; once thought the same length of an average ''Tyrannosaurus'' (40 ft / 12 m), many paleontologists wanted to set the length at 50ft / 15 m. Lack of real evidence for this left ''T. rex'' with the official record until the discovery of ''Giganotosaurus'' in the middle 1990s.
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