Spinosaurus
Spine-oh-sore-us
Name meaning: Spine Lizard
Time Period: Albian to Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous) 100.5-93.9 Mya
Locations: Egypt-Bahariya Formation/Morocco-Kem Kem Beds
Taxonomy: Theropoda-Megalosauroidea-Spinosauridae-Spinosaurinae
Subspecies: S. aegyptiacus S. Mirabilis
Characteristics ~ ~ ~ ~
Spinosaurus is one of the most popular and celebrated dinosaurus despite being a highly fragmentary species and family. It is the longest theropod dinosaur reaching lengths of 46 feet but was not the heaviest weighing 7.4 tons. Spinosaurus' most iconic feature is a large tall sail on its back extending from the vertebrae, it is not exactly clear what the function of the sail was most think it was a sexual display feature or an aquatic adaptation. Spinosaurus had long developed arms with 3 digit hands and sharp claws. But proportionally short legs but strong thigh bones most adapted for paddling through water. Carcharodontosaurus Deltadromeus and Rugops were other carnivores that would have given trouble on land. So spinosaurus adapted to the water: Marine species that were likely prey for Spinosaurus overlapping in the Kem Kem beds around the same time are Onchopristis, Mawsonia, Bawitius, Aidachar pankowskii, Cretalamna biauriculata, a species of unnamed Leptocleidid plesiosaur and a large crocodyliform Elosuchus.
Spinosaurus Mirabilis As of 2026 there has been a Second species of Spinosaurus described. Most strikingly about it, is it's giant Schimitar shaped crest on the top of it's head which was jarring and would have been used in attracting mates. There is hardly any post cranial skeleton to go off of but from the material it can be determined that S. Mirabilis had proportionally longer legs than S. aegypaticus as well as a more slender snout. From the material it's presumed to be around 8 meters long however it likely wasn't done growing and would been larger at maturity.
History & Fossils ~ ~ ~ ~
First found in 1905 Spinosaurus was initially known by a set of two teeth that were assigned to a fish named Saurocephalus. In 1914 the Spinosaurus holotype BSP 1912 VIII 19 would be found consisting of a lower jaw some teeth and parts of the sail as well as another specimen that same year. Spinosaurus would be described and named in 1915 filling in most of the gaps in the skeleton with what we knew at the time about Tyrannosaurus and Gorgosaurus. However the material spinosaurus was named after was destroyed in a World War II British bombing raid at Munich on April 24/25 1944. Spinosaurus would remain out of public intrest for the most part receiving a few redescriptions when similar relatives were discovered particularly Baryonyx. In 2014 the Neotype for Spinosaurus woud be discovered revealing information about it’s paddle tail and it’s relatively small legs.
Media Deptictions ~ ~ ~ ~
Jurassic Park 3 I believe is sort of the black sheep of the Jurassic Park Franchise. It had no novel supporting the film it had different directors and writers and overall was rushed. But hot take I prefer it over The Lost World both have mediocre writing and plot but I feel like Jp3 knows that and just kinda rolls with it. Anyways Spinosaurus or Asset 87 is basically the antagonist of the film, he might have killed the boat crew in the intro but that could have been some Pteranodon. He kills the two fodder military guys throwing one onto the leaving plane ‘somehow’ causing it to crash. Then proceeding to stalk the cast for the rest of the film. One controversial momment is when Spinosaurus kills a Tyrannosaurus a momment the franchise had to apologize for on two separate occasions. In a realistic fight Tyrannosaurus would have won but I think it’s the best fight scene in these movies, short and to the point, plus I love the neck snap. Due to popular demand Spinosaurus would later return in Jurassic World Rebirth basically as Mosasaurus henchmen. They tried to be more accurate with this design giving Spino a paddle tail and letting him spend more time in the water, but personally i’m not a fan of the brown on yellow.
Prehistoric Kingdom Spinosaurus was added to Prehistoric Kingdom in update 9 along with swimming mechanics for all the dinosaurs. It has 4 different skins Sobek named after you know who, is the crocodylian themed one. Ammit Taweret and Hapi are the others
Walking With Dinosaurs 2025 2025 The second episode the River Dragon is all about a Spinosaurus father named Sobek who tries to take care of his 4 kids. He's named after the Egyptian god of Crocodiles and was inspired by the skeleton cast in the Field Museum in Chicago. Sobek Planning to take care of his kids by going to a Onchopristis breeding site, on the way there he has to defend himself from Carcharodontosaurus and loses one of his kids to an Alanqa. At the breeding site he dies at the jaws of another Spinosaurus i’m not spolier warning this the intro shows Sobeks bones, you knew he was going to die. Probably the best episode of the WWD reboot, I only watched two though as this show is pretty boring.
Spinofaarus Vulgaris Is a parody design about how Spinosaurus is always changing usually joked something along the lines of This will be spinosaurus by 2030. Over time we realized that spinosaurus legs we alot smaller than we thought so continuing the tred Spinofaarus just has no legs. The Sail is now a hump and the long curved jaws supported a proboscis trunk. S tier shitpost as some people are actually gullible enough to believe it.
