Spinosaurus was a swimmer.

[LordTrilobite]

Well, it looks like modders will have to update their Spinosaurus again.

Remember that new Spinosaurus skeleton from 2014? Palaeontologists went back to the site in Morocco and excavated more bones of the same animal. And as it turns out, Spinosaurus had a tail fin suitable for water propulsion. So it seems the animal was even more suited to swimming than previously thought.

Here are some articles and the scientific publication.

Reconstructing Spinosaurus, a gigantic aquatic predator

Explore how scientists discovered the largest predator ever lived and hunted almost entirely in the water.

www.nationalgeographic.com

Spinosaurus fossil tail suggests dinosaurs were swimmers after all

Unique among known dinosaurs, Spinosaurus had a finlike tail, which the predator may have used to propel itself through the water.

www.sciencenews.org

Tail-propelled aquatic locomotion in a theropod dinosaur - Nature

Discovery that the giant theropod dinosaur Spinosaurus has a large flexible tail indicates that it was primarily aquatic and swam in a similar manner to extant tail-propelled aquatic vertebrates.

www.nature.com

A truly bizarre animal.

 

[Jurassic Tyrant King]

I always said that scientists debate this kind of stuff too much because I already knew that Spinosaurus was a swimmer I told many people Spinosaurus was a Swimmer I mean why develop that bizarre like a crocodile if you're not going to swim.

 

[Mickey Megafauna]

Remember the final attack in JP3? That alone should be enough incentive. His sail was like Bruce’s dorsal fin.

 

[LordTrilobite]

So you knew it before there was proper evidence? Being convinced of something something is not the same as knowing.
Yes there were clear adaptations for at least a lifestyle near the water. Before this we knew about it's short legs and crocodile-like head that seems good for grabbing fish. But that alone does not make a swimmer. There wasn't proper evidence of adaptations for swimming. Until now.

 

[Jurassic Tyrant King]

So you knew it before there was proper evidence? Being convinced of something something is not the same as knowing.
Yes there were clear adaptations for at least a lifestyle near the water. Before this we knew about it's short legs and crocodile-like head that seems good for grabbing fish. But that alone does not make a swimmer. There wasn't proper evidence of adaptations for swimming. Until now.

Jurassic Park 3 got it right. For once, the body of course is not the correct shape but of course the behavior is

 

[DragonNTiger]

I always said that scientists debate this kind of stuff too much because I already knew that Spinosaurus was a swimmer I told many people Spinosaurus was a Swimmer I mean why develop that bizarre like a crocodile if you're not going to swim.

Bizarre like what, you mean the skull design? Because it was a piscivore...

 

[Jurassic Tyrant King]

Bizarre like what, you mean the skull design? Because it was a piscivore...

yes of course, plus no one's going to make fun of Steven Spielberg now over Spinosaurus swimming in the water after many paleontologists said that Spinosaurus couldn't swim like that in the past and up until now.

 

[LordTrilobite]

yes of course, plus no one's going to make fun of Steven Spielberg now over Spinosaurus swimming in the water after many paleontologists said that Spinosaurus couldn't swim like that in the past and up until now.

When JPIII was made they didn't "know" Spinosaurus was aquatic or semi-aquatic. It was a reasonable idea based on limited evidence. But much of Spinosaurus anatomy was a mystery. Saying you "know" it at that time is foolish.

 

[DragonNTiger]

yes of course, plus no one's going to make fun of Steven Spielberg now over Spinosaurus swimming in the water after many paleontologists said that Spinosaurus couldn't swim like that in the past and up until now.

But the skull shape has nothing to do with swimming... just the diet... I mean, why else would animals like Baryonyx and Suchomimus have similar skull designs and yet clearly be terrestrial?

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

Wow, im confused. I literally thought this was common knowledge.

 

[LordTrilobite]

Wow, im confused. I literally thought this was common knowledge.

How can it be common knowledge when it was based on very little.

Baryonyx has been known for a long while now. And it's well known it's suited for a piscivorous diet. Baryonyx is also clearly a terrestrial animal. The original Spinosaurus aegyptiacus fossil was lost in WWII, so it remained a mystery for a long time. And we still don't know what the sail is for.

In the last few decades It's become clear that all Spinosaurids seem to have this piscivorous adaptation yes. But eating fish doesn't make you a swimmer.
Around 2000 along with JPIII there was the discovery of an isolated Spinosaur snout from Morocco. This is why at least the head of the JPIII Spinosurus was quite accurate for it's time. In the film they made it semi-aquatic. But this wasn't really based on that much real evidence. But it seemed a fairly reasonable hypothesis at the time. But no other dinosaur is aquatic.

Only in 2014 with the discovery of the neotype fossil was there some good evidence that Spinosaurus might have been more aquatic. The specimen included a nearly complete leg and foot. So then we knew that Spinosaurus had short legs and wide toes. This alone doesn't make it a swimmer. But generally speaking, reduced limbs and wide toes are adaptations you could associate with swimming adaptations.

And now, they discovered the tail of this same animal from 2014. So now we know if has reduced legs an a tail that looks suitable for paddling. So only now is it reasonable to assume that Spinosaurus was likely more aquatic than land-based.

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

Because I'm not a scientist or a paleontologist or a geographer or anyone with a degree. I'm a person who watches movies and plays video games and went to high school. so based on everything I was taught in kindergarten and on television and in movies and another video games which seem to feature dinosaurs in them, like Ark for example, it seemed like the general consensus everybody else on the planet had was they swam and walked on land.

or are you trying to imply that a huge slacker pothead like myself just happens to know things the rest of the educated community did not? To me it seems like it was common knowledge.

 

[LordTrilobite]

Because I'm not a scientist or a paleontologist or a geographer or anyone with a degree. I'm a person who watches movies and plays video games and went to high school. so based on everything I was taught in kindergarten and on television and in movies and another video games which seem to feature dinosaurs in them, like Ark for example, it seemed like the general consensus everybody else on the planet had was they swam and walked on land.

or are you trying to imply that a huge slacker pothead like myself just happens to know things the rest of the educated community did not? To me it seems like it was common knowledge.

Well I guess then the popular media has failed to properly portray the current knowledge. And popular media sadly does often misrepresent and sensationalize already cool discoveries.
I realize I am an outlier in reading a lot of the scientific literature to stay up to date (mainly on theropods and hadrosaurs). But still, I don't see how it can be common knowledge when even popular media shows vastly different versions of Spinosaurus? While the JPIII Spino does swim. It's clearly an animal that lives on land and seems to hunt mainly on land. The fairly recent documentary Planet Dinosaur showed Spinosaurus as a terrestrial piscivore, like a giant stork eating fish from the side of the river. Kinda only in the much more recent documentaries that accompanied the 2014 discovery did it really shift to a much more aquatic predator.

ARK also does not feature dinosaurs. It features fantasy monsters. Though funnily enough it's one of the rare occasions where the "Spinosaurus" is shown as having more aquatic adaptations.

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

Well I guess then the popular media has failed to properly portray the current knowledge. And popular media sadly does often misrepresent and sensationalize already cool discoveries.
I realize I am an outlier in reading a lot of the scientific literature to stay up to date (mainly on theropods and hadrosaurs). But still, I don't see how it can be common knowledge when even popular media shows vastly different versions of Spinosaurus? While the JPIII Spino does swim. It's clearly an animal that lives on land and seems to hunt mainly on land. The fairly recent documentary Planet Dinosaur showed Spinosaurus as a terrestrial piscivore, like a giant stork eating fish from the side of the river. Kinda only in the much more recent documentaries that accompanied the 2014 discovery did it really shift to a much more aquatic predator.

ARK also does not feature dinosaurs. It features fantasy monsters. Though funnily enough it's one of the rare occasions where the "Spinosaurus" is shown as having more aquatic adaptations.

I can only assume you've never played it or seen any material about it whatsoever as they are specifically referenced as dinosaurs in the game.

 

[MarcWP]

Thanks for sharing Trilobite! So little was known about this animal, and scientists even thought the proportions of the animal didn't make it capable of swimming. We can only hope we find some more fossils in the future and not those scarce fragments we have now.

And yes alot of movies, games etc made up the fact that it could swim. We didn't really have any evidence to support this. We pretty much only had fossils from the hind legs and some of the sail. So everything about this animal was assumption. That includes the size.

 

[LordTrilobite]

View attachment 171465
I can only assume you've never played it or seen any material about it whatsoever as they are specifically referenced as dinosaurs in the game.

You assume wrong then. Seen plenty of lets plays and promotional material. Most of them have broken wrists, random spikes everywhere, half baked feathers etc. They are much worse than anything from the JP/JW universe which are for the most part just outdated. To their credit they actually have different species names, thus acknowledging that they aren't real dinosaurs. It also has literal dragons and is not to be taken seriously. Fun, sure. But nothing resembling reality.

Thanks for sharing Trilobite! So little was known about this animal, and scientists even thought the proportions of the animal didn't make it capable of swimming. We can only hope we find some more fossils in the future and not those scarce fragments we have now.

And yes a lot of movies, games etc made up the fact that it could swim. We didn't really have any evidence to support this. We pretty much only had fossils from the hind legs and some of the sail. So everything about this animal was assumption. That includes the size.

Well there might be more good news since it seems the same Spinosaurus dig site might have more bones that still could be dug up. So it might just become even more complete.

 

[Jurassic Tyrant King]

But the skull shape has nothing to do with swimming... just the diet... I mean, why else would animals like Baryonyx and Suchomimus have similar skull designs and yet clearly be terrestrial?

True my friend let's now it doesn't indicate a lifestyle of swimming in water but I mean the body shape of the animal Spinosaurus indicates swimming ever since it was discovered in 2012 with that bizarre shape instead of being bipedal like T-Rex. Baryonyx and Suchomimus of course we don't know for sure what they had but they could have been developing tails for swimming as well but not as well as Spinosaurus. Although come to think of it no spinosaurid has ever been found with the full Tail till now? It just shows that we didn't know much about the Spinosaurus or its family.

the closest animal with a tail similar to Spinosaurus I can think of is Ceratosaurus from fossils. most paleontologists anyway believe that ceratosaurus may have not only walked on land but also snuck up on its prey from the water like dryosaurus drinking from The Water.

 

[MarcWP]

True my friend let's now it doesn't indicate a lifestyle of swimming in water but I mean the body shape of the animal Spinosaurus indicates swimming ever since it was discovered in 2012 with that bizarre shape instead of being bipedal like T-Rex. Baryonyx and Suchomimus of course we don't know for sure what they had but they could have been developing tails for swimming as well but not as well as Spinosaurus. Although come to think of it no spinosaurid has ever been found with the full Tail till now? It just shows that we didn't know much about the Spinosaurus or its family.

the closest animal with a tail similar to Spinosaurus I can think of is Ceratosaurus from fossils. most paleontologists anyway believe that ceratosaurus may have not only walked on land but also snuck up on its prey from the water like dryosaurus drinking from The Water.

The body shape of Spinosaurus? We never found enough bones to know it's body shape. We only found hind legs and the sail. And now the tail and the old snout from 1915.
And if you're talking Ibrahims discovery it was in 2014 not 2012. Stromer's was in 1915 though.

And we have found tail fragments from both Bary and Sucho and nothing suggests a tail for paddling. They suggest regular tails.

The tail from Ceratosaurus has been found though. Nothing suggests a life in water. Only that they might have eaten fish on occasion.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334560612_Comments_on_the_ecology_of_Jurassic_theropod_dinosaur_Ceratosaurus_Dinosauria_Theropoda_with_critical_reevaluation_for_supposed_semiaquatic_lifestyle

 

[jsi7iv]

I see I have my Thursday evening reading all laid out for me. Thank you for the articles.