The wild corpse Spinosaurus was perhaps not the Michael Phelps of dinosaurs, as recently claimed, but rather as a comfortable bath beauty who prefers to wave gracefully in the shallow zone, a new study suggests.
That does not mean Spinosaurus could not swim: it could. But it was not the ‘highly specialized predator in the water’ that could effectively chase prey through the water, as evidenced by a large 2020 study published in the journal. Nature, said the researchers of the new study.
“Spinosaurus was probably a decent swimmer, and definitely a better swimmer than any other famous big theropod [bipedal, mostly meat-eating dinosaurs], “said co-researcher Thomas Holtz, senior lecturer in vertebrate paleontology at the University of Maryland, in an email to WordsSideKick.” But a swimmer is not the same as being a specialized predator in the water. “
On the contrary, Spinosaurus was probably like a modern-day heron or stork – wandering in the water and submerging part of its head while fishing for prey, but also opportunistically hunting land for land animals or winged creatures, the researchers said.
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Spinosaurus, which was about 112 million to 94 million years ago during the Chalk period, has surprised scientists since its discovery in 1915 in North Africa. It was more than 15 meters long and was as big as a Tyrannosaurus rex and protruded large projections from its back, possibly forming a skin-covered sail. The strange ball’s crocodile– as snout and teeth indicated that it hunts fish; chemical analyzes of isotopes (versions of an element) and fossil finds confirmed that it ate fish as well as dinosaurs and pterosaurs.
Spinosaurushabits are difficult to decipher because there are few fossils of the animal. The most complete skeleton, of Egypt, was destroyed in 1944 when the Allies bombed a museum in Munich, Germany. In the last decade or so, new fossil discoveries have led to a lot of studies on SpinosaurusDarla Zelenitsky, an assistant professor of paleontology at the University of Calgary who was not involved in the study, rekindled interest in understanding the lifestyle.
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Champion or mediocre swimmer?
The researchers dived deep Spinosaurus‘anatomy, habitat and diet, and also compares it with the characteristics of other animals, both living and extinct.
So what about Spinosaurus denies the “Olympic swimmer” claim? The new analysis suggested that the foreign body shape, especially its long sail, would cause a lot of resistance in the water. “Our rough estimate shows it would be [have needed] to be many feet underwater to reduce the drag effect, “Holtz said. But if Spinosaurus is known from estuary [swampy] environments, it feeds not only in large Mississippi or Amazon-like canals, but in water of all depths. ‘
Further, Spinosaurus’ body shape does not look like that of other hunters in the water.
“Most larger pursuit of predators – of Jurassic “ichthyosaurs to tunas to dolphins and so on – have relatively stiff bodies and short necks, with the propulsion produced from a fairly concentrated range of motion in the tail,” Holtz said. Spinosaurus does not have a short neck or a stiff body. “In contrast, the body of Spinosaurus are more like less specialized swimmers. And the fact that evidence of isotopes shows that they also feed on land strongly supports them as a more general lifestyle, rather than one that commits them to a single primary way of life, ‘Holtz said.
Spinosaurus had a relatively long neck that was curved like a coat hanger. “It has this strange neck … to sting,” added research leader David Hone, a senior lecturer in zoology at Queen Mary University of London. On top of that, the nostrils were half in his snout, not on top of the snout like a crocodile’s. ‘It makes sense if you keep your nose just below the surface [while hunting]”” rather than spending most of his time underwater, Hone told WordsSideKick.
Other anatomical clues suggest Spinosaurus was more like a stork than a leviathan – Hone explained a lot of it Twitter, including the propulsion of long tails, such as that of Spinosaurus, usually helps with short bursts, not long tasks, Hone said. The 2020 Nature study also showed that Spinosaurus could not swim as efficiently as a crocodile, in part because he had fewer tail muscles than crocodiles.
Perhaps, SpinosaurusThe tail has other purposes besides swimming – it could have been a billboard for dinosaurs, for example, used to send social-sexual signals, the researchers said. An elephant, for example, uses its fangs for many purposes, such as attracting mates, defending itself, digging objects and lifting them, they said.
But other paleontologists say that more research on Spinosaurus is needed to erase his past. ‘Both studies have their merits, and I suspect this is not the end of the lifestyle controversy Spinosaurus, ‘Said Zelenitsky.
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“So what is the following for? Spinosaurus? Who knows? “Lindsay Zanno, head of paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and associate professor at North Carolina State University, who was not involved in the study, told WordsSideKick by email.” But if it was me, I would ‘take a closer look at the internal structure of the skeleton.’ The microscopic structure of the bone can reveal or float well, Zanno noted.
Meanwhile, the lead author of the 2020 study stands by his interpretation that Spinosaurus was a specialized predator of aquatic prey. “Long story short, it does not really change anything for us – there is nothing in the paper that we have not discussed before,” said Nizar Ibrahim, a senior lecturer in paleontology at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, told Live Science an email.
The new study was published in the January issue of the journal Palaeontologia Electronica.
Originally published on Live Science.