The Ever-changing Image of the World’s Largest Predatory Dinosaur
The depiction of Spinosaurus has changed a lot through the years…
Spinosaurus is often regarded as the largest predatory dinosaur that ever existed. It is also one of the most bizarre-looking.
This aberrant creature looked nothing like Tyrannosaurus rex and the rest of the giant theropods. For one, it had a skull similar to that of a modern crocodilian and bore straight conical teeth with no serrations. It also had a pair of robust forelimbs bearing three-fingered hands, with an enlarged claw on the first digit. Its most prominent feature, though, was its tall neural spines, some of which grew to at least 1.65 meters (5.4 ft) long and formed a unique sail-like structure on its back.
Despite holding the prestigious title of the largest predatory theropod, Spinosaurus is only known from a handful of specimens discovered in North Africa. The loss of the original bones and the gradual discovery of more fossil material resulted in a constant revision of the appearance of this remarkable 99-million-year-old predator.
1915–1980s
The original Spinosaurus remains were found and described in the early 20th century. In 1912, Richard Markgraf discovered a partial skeleton in the Bahariya…
