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The wild Spinosaurus maybe not the Michael Phelps of dinosaurs, as was recently claimed, but rather as a laid-back bathing beauty who preferred to gracefully wade through the shallow area, suggests a new study.
That does not mean Spinosaurus couldn’t swim: he could. But it was not the “highly specialized aquatic predator” that could effectively hunt prey in water, as revealed in a large 2020 study published in the journal. Nature, said the researchers of the new study.
“Spinosaurus was probably a good swimmer, and certainly a better swimmer than any known great theropod [bipedal, mostly meat-eating dinosaurs]Study co-investigator Thomas Holtz, a lecturer in vertebrate paleontology at the University of Maryland, told Live Science in an email. “But being a swimmer is not the same as being a swimmer. ” be a predator specializing in water pursuit.
Rather, Spinosaurus was probably like a modern day heron or stork – wading through water and sticking part of its head underwater while fishing for prey, but also opportunistically hunting land animals or creatures on land wings, the researchers said.
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Spinosaurus, who lived about 112 to 94 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, has confused scientists since its discovery in 1915 in North Africa. At over 50 feet (15 meters) in length, he was as tall as a Tyrannosaurus rex and had large protrusions protruding from its back, which may have formed a veil covered with skin. The bizarre crocodile-as the muzzle and teeth indicated that he was hunting fish; chemical analyzes of isotopes (versions of an element) and fossil finds confirmed that he ate fish and munched on dinosaurs and pterosaurs.
Spinosaurus“The habits are difficult to decipher because there are few fossils of the beast. The most complete skeleton, from Egypt, was destroyed in 1944 when the Allies bombed a museum in Munich, Germany. Over the past decade, new fossil discoveries have led to numerous studies on Spinosaurus, triggering a renewed interest in understanding her way of life, said Darla Zelenitsky, an assistant professor of paleontology at the University of Calgary, who was not involved in the study.
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Champion or mediocre swimmer?
The researchers dove deep into Spinosaurusanatomy, habitat and diet, and also compared them to the characteristics of other animals, living and extinct.
So what about Spinosaurus cancels the claim of “Olympic swimmer”? The new analysis suggested that its odd body shape, especially its mainsail, would have created a lot of drag in the water. “Our rough estimate shows that it would be [have needed] several meters underwater to reduce the effect of drag, ”said Holtz. But as Spinosaurus is known from the estuarine [swampy] environments, it foraged not only in the enormous canals of the Mississippi or the Amazon, but in water of all depths.
In addition, Spinosaurus’ the shape of the body did not resemble that of other aquatic pursuit hunters.
“Most of the top chasing predators – of Jurassic ichthyosaurs to tuna to dolphins and so on – have relatively stiff bodies and short necks, with the propulsion generated by a rather concentrated area of motion in the tail, ”Holtz said. Spinosaurus did not have a short neck or a stiff body. “In contrast, the body of Spinosaurus more like less specialized swimmers. And the fact that isotopic evidence shows that they also ate on land strongly supports them as having a more generalized lifestyle rather than one engaged in a single primary way of life, ”said Holtz.
Spinosaurus had a relatively long neck that was curved like a hanger. “He’s got this weird neck … for stabbing,” added study principal investigator David Hone, senior lecturer in zoology at Queen Mary’s University in London. Also, its nostrils were halfway up its muzzle, not above its muzzle like those of a crocodile. “It makes sense if you hold your nose just below the surface [while hunting]Rather than spending all of his time primarily overwhelmed, Hone told Live Science.
Other anatomical clues suggest that Spinosaurus looked more like a stork than a leviathan – Hone detailed a lot on Twitter, including this propulsion from long tails, like that of Spinosaurus, usually helps with short bursts, not long chases, Hone said. The Nature study 2020 also showed that Spinosaurus couldn’t swim as efficiently as a crocodile, in part because it had less tail muscles than crocodiles.
Perhaps, SpinosaurusThe tail had other purposes than swimming – it could have been a dinosaur age display board, for example, used to send socio-sexual signals, the researchers said. For example, an elephant uses its tusks for many purposes, such as attracting mates, defending itself, digging and lifting things, they said.
But other paleontologists say more research on Spinosaurus is necessary to evoke his past. “Both studies have their merits, and I suspect this is not the end of the lifestyle controversy for SpinosaurusZelenitsky said.
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“So what’s the next step Spinosaurus? Who knows? Lindsay Zanno, head of paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and associate research professor at North Carolina State University, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an 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 could reveal if it was floating well,” Zanno noted.
Meanwhile, the lead author of the 2020 study maintains his interpretation that Spinosaurus was a specialized predator of aquatic prey. “In short, it really doesn’t change anything for us – there is nothing in the document that we haven’t considered before,” said Nizar Ibrahim, senior lecturer in paleontology at the University of Portsmouth in the UK. , to Live Science in an email.
The new study was published in the January issue of the journal Palaeontologia Electronica.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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