Spinosaurus - Meaning : Spine LIzard

Spinosaurus (meaning 'spine lizard') was a theropod dinosaur genus that lived in what is now Egypt, from the Albian to early Cenomanian stages of the Cretaceous Period, about 95 to 93 million years ago.

Even larger than Tyrannosaurus rex and Giganotosaurus. Spinosaurus was the longest theropod, measuring 15 to 17.4 metres (49.2 to 57.1 feet) long and standing at 5 to 6 metres (16 to 20 feet) in height. Spinosaurus reached weights up to 9 tons. The distinctive spines of these animals (large bones extending from the vertebrae) grew up to 2 metres (6.6ft) long and were likely to have had skin stretching between them, forming a sail-like structure, although some have suggested they were covered in muscle and formed a hump or ridge.

It is unclear whether Spinosaurus was primarily a cursorial predator or a fisher, as indicated by its elongated jaws, conical teeth and raised nostrils. The only direct evidence for spinosaur diet comes from related European and South American species. Baryonyx was found with both fish scales and bones from juvenile Iguanodon in its stomach, while a tooth embedded in a South American pterosaur bone suggests that spinosaurs occasionally preyed on these flying archosaurs. Spinosaurus was likely to have been a more generalized and opportunistic predator, possibly a Cretaceous equivalent of large grizzly bears, being biased toward fishing, though it undoubtedly scavenged and took many kinds of small-to-medium-sized prey.