Spinosaurus

Spinosaurs were a family of bipedal carnivorous dinosaurs that lived in what is now North Africa approximately 100 million years ago. They were distinguished by the distinctive extended vertabrae spines that extended as high as six feet along the spine. It is not known if the spines supported a sail-like fin, like Dimetrodon, or a fleshy, camel-like hump.

Fast Facts

1. Name Means: "Spine lizard"
2. Naming Credit: Ernst Stromer (1915)
3. Range: North Africa
4. Classification:

• • Order: Saurischia
    • Family: Spinosauridae
      • Genus: Spinosaurus
        • Type Species: Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus

1. Period: Middle Cretaceous
2. Length: Up to 60 feet
3. Weight: Up to 10 tons
4. Back Spines: Up to 6 feet long
5. In Popular Culture: Jurassic Park 3

The Largest Known Land Carnivore

Spinosaurus has usurped the throne of "most gigantic killer" from the popular T. rex. Spinosaurus was both longer and heavier than the Tyrant Lizard. The movie Jurassic Park 3 featured a death-match between the two dinosaurs wherein Spinosaurus handily defeated Tyrannosaurus, but in reality the cinematic rivals likely never met -- they lived millions of years and thousands of miles apart.

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