Spinosaurus Feeding

Spinosaurus eating a Sawfish

Spinosaurus was the largest known Theropod.  It was around 55 feet long and weighed somewhere around 46,000 lbs or 20,865 kg.  It probably mostly fed on large Coelocanths and large Sawfish.  

The original fossils of Spinosaurus were destroyed in World War II by Allied Bombers.  

The museum was across the street from Nazi headquarters.  So the museum and Spinosaurus were collateral damage.  The paleontologist who found Spinosaurus, in Egypt, was a German named Ernst Von Reichenbach.  He was worried about the specimen being destroyed by Allied bombs so he begged the museum director to let him move the Spinosaurus fossil somewhere else.  At the time it was the only know specimen of Spinosaurus.  But, the museum director was a Nazi and he refused.  So when the Allied bombers targeted the Nazi headquarters across the street, the museum was destroyed too.  Back then strategic bombers, like the B-24 below, would drop bombs over a large area to hit the inteneded target.  

On a side note, this area bombing really bothered my father, who, long before he was my father, was a U.S. Bomber pilot who felt terrible about the fact that the bombs he was dropping was killing people.  If not for the war he would have been on a mission for his church. . . The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. . . But he volunteered for pilot training after Pearl Harbor was bombed.  His two best friends also volunteered to be pilots but they both failed to survive the war.  Dad used to say, "I should be teaching those children the Gospel, not dropping bombs on them."  By the way, after the war he went to Medical School and became a small town physician.  He delivered thousands of babies and did a lot of good as a physician. . . including saving my life by doing emergency tracheotomies several times.  

Thankfully, another set of Spinosaurus fossils was found in Morocco a couple of years ago.  There is an excellent Nova Episode called Bigger Than T. rex.  The documentary is very well done and tells an amazing and true tale of how the new Spinosaurus was found.  This great discovery revealed that Spinosaurus probably walked on all fours and lived rather like a crocodile.  (See the drawing below.)

NOTE:  The new drawings, like this Spinosaurus, in printable form, is found by clicking on the Paleontology button or All Printables button up top.  Scroll down because new drawings are at the bottom of the correct list. 

Spinosaurus with Spots

B-24J Liberator