Suchomimus & Spinosaurus & Baryonyx

Suchomimus at Hatching Time

This drawing is scanned and posted because the grandson who was sleeping in the room with the scanner woke up from his afternoon nap.  

Suchomimus was a 36 foot or 11 meter long Spinosaur.  It was related to Spinosaurus.  It was smaller and had a smaller sail on its back.  They both lived in the Cretaceous Period of what is now Northern Africa.  But, Suchomimus lived earlier than Spinosaurs.  In comparison, Spinosaurus was 59 feet or 18 meters long.  Both of these animals lived near or in a river area and ate primarily fish.  The fish they ate could be 10 feet or 3 meters long.  They both had sensors on their snouts to detect movement in murky water, so they both could sense a fish swimming by.

Lately the new discovery of a more complete Spinosaurus has some paleontologists thinking that although Spinosaurs could float well, and probably swim well, they might have had a hard time diving under the water.  A computer model showed this.  So, does that mean they did NOT go into water?  NO it does not.  With their sensors on their snouts Spinosaurs could sense a fish swimming by and since they probably lived in aa river delta the water was probably often murky.  So the Spinosaurs could sense a fish swimming by and snatch it.

Spinosaurus after a Sawfish

(So, this may not have happened this way.  The Spinosaurus probably stayed

 on the upper or top area of the river when a sawfish swam by it grabbed it. 

 Spinosaurus probably could not dive and swim underwater deep like this.)    

Spinosaurus Close Up

Spinosaurs were all Theropods but unlike T. rex or Allosaurus who lived probably exclusively on the land, Spinosaurs lived on land AND in the water.  Spinosaurs probably ate fish most of the time.  They probably only hunted land animals like Ouranosaurus when the fishing was bad.  Ouranosaurus was a hadrosaur or duckbill dinosaur that also had a sail.  Apparently having a sail was a good adaptation in Cretaceous North Africa.

Ouranosaurus

Ouranosaurus and Cronopio

(Cronopio was an early mammal.) 

Spinosaurs had big claws and one of their hand claws was especially large.  Some paleontologists think that the weak jawed Spinosaurs used that claw like a shushi knife to fillet their fish before eating. 

Baryonyx the Spinosaur

Baryonyx was another even smaller Spinosaur with no sail.  Baryonyx was discovered in England.
It was 33 feet or 10 meters long so it was smaller than even Suchomimus.

NOTE:  There are lots of printable Spinosaurus drawings under the Paleontology Button.  The newest drawing is  Suchomimus. . .  Suchomimus is the only new drawing on this post.   Newer drawings are at the bottom of the list.  These drawings are under the Paleontology button and in the Cretaceous section.