Jurassic Park - Fact or Fiction? Spinosauridae
In this Blog Series we looked looking at some Dinosaurs portrayed in the Jurassic Park/World film series, and compared some of the inaccurate film versions with Paleontological research, to get a better picture of the real dinos!
Today we will focus on the Spinosaurus that appeared in Jurassic Park III, as well as other members of the Spinosauridae Dino Family from the Jurassic Park/World franchise.
The Spinosauridae Family:
Today we will focus on the Spinosaurus that appeared in Jurassic Park III, as well as other members of the Spinosauridae Dino Family from the Jurassic Park/World franchise.
The Spinosauridae (or Spinosaurids) are a clade or family of theropod dinosaurs comprising ten to fourteen known genera. They came into prominence during the Cretaceous period. Spinosaurid fossils have been recovered worldwide, including Africa, Europe, South America and Asia. Their remains have generally been attributed to the Early to Mid Cretaceous. Spinosaurids were large bipedal carnivores. Their crocodilian-like skulls were long, low and narrow, bearing conical teeth with reduced or absent serrations.
Spinosauridae Dinosaurs from Jurassic World Alive Game
From the Left: Irritator, Suchomimus, Baryonyx & Spinosaurus.
Baryonyx was originally supposed to be the main antagonist dinosaur of Jurassic Park III and a logo depicting it as well as a storyboard featuring this dinosaur was even made. But Baryonyx was replaced by its larger relative Spinosaurus in the final product. According to Ricardo Delgado, who served as a concept artist for Jurassic Park III in early 2000, several members of the Jurassic Park III would refer to the Spinosaurus as Baryonyx.
Right: Official Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Baryonyx Render.
Left: Official Jurassic Park III Logo depicting the Spinosaurus. Right: Official Spinosaurus Render.
Interestingly enough, Baryonyx makes several appearances in Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom. a Baryonyx attacks Claire and Franklin, but they manage to lock it inside the underground control center, where it presumably met its demise by the surging lava. Another individual was seen and was transported by helicopter to the boat. At least three Baryonyxes were captured to be sold off at the Lockwood Manor Auction. Two Baryonyxes were briefly seen escaping the estate with all the other dinosaurs, while another one that was bought at the auction was last seen being loaded onto a cargo plane to be delivered to its buyer. It is unknown what happened with this last specimen.
Official Jurassic World Suchomimus Renders.
Let's hope that Suchomimus makes an appearance in Jurassic World Dominion!
3D Rendering of Suchomimus killing a Tyrannosaurus Rex by Herschel Hoffmeyer.
Image Credit: shutterstock_430454047I recently had the amazing privilege to be in the presence of a reconstructed Suchomimus fossilized Skeleton Display at Iziko Museums of South Africa! 🤓🦖🦕
Spinosaurus in Jurassic Park 3:
When Dr. Alan Grant asked Billy Brennan what kind of dinosaur they saw, Billy thought it was a Suchomimus, because of its snout, Dr. Grant said it wasn't and said bigger, Billy thought Baryonyx but he confirmed they both don't have a sail.
Spinosaurus, which was longer and heavier than Tyrannosaurus, is the largest known carnivorous dinosaur. It possessed a skull 1.75 metres (roughly 6 feet) long, a body length of 14–18 metres (46–59 feet), and an estimated mass of 12,000–20,000 kg (13–22 tons).
Like other spinosaurids, Spinosaurus possessed a long narrow skull resembling that of a crocodile and nostrils near the eyes, instead of near the end of the snout. Its teeth were straight and conical, instead of curved and bladelike as in other theropods. All these features are adaptations for piscivory (that is, the consumption of fish). In addition, the bones of its skeleton were more compact and denser than those of similar land-dwelling theropods, which allowed it greater control over its buoyancy underwater; this characteristic has led some researchers to argue that Spinosaurus was primarily an aquatic predator rather than a terrestrial one.
Other spinosaurids have been found with partially digested fish scales and the bones of other dinosaurs in their stomach regions, and spinosaurid teeth have been found embedded in pterosaur bones. The sail over the animal’s back was probably used for social displays or species recognition rather than for temperature regulation. Some authorities maintain that the sail was actually a hump used to store water and lipids.
Some more recent Spinosaurus discoveries:
- In 2014, Spinosaurus was discovered to have a different sail shape.
- Spinosaurus, according to the 2014 paper, had shorter back legs than previously thought.
- The shorter back legs (and the already known 'crocodilian' snout) suggest that Spinosaurus had a semi-aquatic lifestyle and could swim.
- While the show has depicted Spinosaurus as a creature that spent some time in the water, its swimming capabilities have been a topic of debate since 2018, with current understand being that Spinosaurus was not a very good swimmer and most likely spend most of its time on land and/or shallow water.
- In 2014, Spinosaurus was proposed to have been primarily quadrupedal, in accordance to the description of the 2014 specimen. This has since been debunked.
- In 2020, a paper described the tail of Spinosaurus, which was flat and paddle-like. It was considered as evidence supporting the Swimming Spinosaurus theory, but another paper has since countered this conclusion, claiming that the tail was unable to generate enough force to propel Spinosaurus through the water.
- In 2021, a new paper claimed that the degree of aquatic attributions for Spinosaurus is not consistent. Spinosaurus was most likely a terrestrial generalist carnivorous theropod that wade through waterways and shores, much akin to herons, pelicans, shoebills, giant petrels, and skuas
Spinosaurus promo image in Planet Dinosaur.
In conclusion, some shots in Jurassic Park 3 show that the Spinosaurus' fangs were just as long, if not longer, than those of a T-rex, which was simply not the case. The T-rex had some of the largest teeth recorded of the meat-eating dinosaurs, reaching a huge 12 inches in length. Meanwhile, the Spinosaurus's teeth were a little more than three inches long at most.
Spinosaurus Illustration by Masato Hattori (www.sciencephoto.com/contributor/mha).jpg)
Spinosaurus Illustration by Masato Hattori (www.sciencephoto.com/contributor/mha)
Spinosaurus Illustration by Masato Hattori (www.sciencephoto.com/contributor/mha)Perhaps the biggest difference between the movie's Spinosaurus and the real-life Spinosaurus is the force of its bite. In Jurassic Park 3, the Spinosaurus easily defeated the T-rex by clenching its neck tightly between its jaws. While this might be possible with a smaller organism, it's unlikely that a Spinosaurus would be able to do that with a dinosaur as robust and muscular as a T-rex.
Though the Spinosaurus had an impressive bite force of 2 tons, its teeth would have been too small and dull to grab hold of a T-rex's neck long enough to bite down on it, let alone break it in half, where the Tyrannosaurus rex had the strongest bite of any known land animal, extinct or otherwise. The king of the dinosaurs was capable of biting through solid bone, but paleontologists had long been baffled as to how it accomplished this feat without breaking its own skull. The bone-shattering bite of a Tyrannosaurus rex could have crushed a car, delivering up to 6 tons of pressure to its prey.So according to the latest research the outcome of the battle between the T-rex and the Spinosaurus would most probably be very different.
References, bibliography & further reading:
Dinosaurs: A Visual Encyclopedia by DKPublishing
https://www.amazon.com/Visual-Encyclopedia-Dinosaurs-DK-Publishing/dp/1405308389
Duncan, J. (2007). The Winston Effect: The art and history of Stan Winston studio. London, UK: Titan Books.
Bennington, J.B. (1996). "Errors in the movie Jurassic Park". American Paleontologist
https://www.britannica.com/animal/Spinosaurus
https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/06/02/
https://jurassicpark.fandom.com/wiki/S
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