Post by thetyrantlizard on Jan 10, 2007 21:37:12 GMT -5
JJaw* has posted something about how the spinosaurus in JP/// had the wrong snout and was oversized, and that the TLW spinosaur is accurate. I wonder which spinosaur 'specialist' he consulted. Whatever the horrible mistakes they made in JP/// regarding the spinosaur's behaviour, the appearance was reasonably accurate. EVERY scientifically accurate reconstruction nowadays of a spinosaur gives it a crocodilian snout. Furthermore, the spinosaurus is indeed the largest theropod known to science. There is no question that it is not oversized in JP///. In fact, compared to the thrasher and red rex the animatronic spinosaurus is undersized by maybe 8-9 inches or so. It would have lost a hypothetical confrontation with the rex not because of its size but because it was more lightly built and that its jaws had no business clamping down on the heavily muscled neck of a tyrannosaurus. A spinosaurus would have used the claws on its forelimbs, which were likely much bigger than those of t-rex, to defend itself.
Some pics:
the rex vs. spino pic:
a sketch of a spino by a palaeontologist--note the snout:
a reconstruction of a spinosaurus head, by cm studio:
A photograph of the holotype specimen discovered by Stromer which was destroyed in WW2. On the lower right is the tip of the lower jaw of spinosaurus. Not only does it look crocodilian, it even looks more like a gavial snout, which would indeed make it quite narrow.
If anything, the head of the animatronic spinosaurus seems still too wide & foreshortened. Quoting from an online source which seems accurate: "New Moroccan cranial specimens referred to Spinosaurus cf. S. aegyptiacus put a midline flare on the nasals and provide evidence for an individual potentially 16 to 18 meters long, the longest theropod known. A chunk of extremely elongated and narrow snout[/color] just shy of a meter long is responsible for this; the premaxillae {note--these are the bones at the tip of the snout} are particularly drawn out, looking almost like a poorly-considered afterthought. "
Some pics:
the rex vs. spino pic:
a sketch of a spino by a palaeontologist--note the snout:
a reconstruction of a spinosaurus head, by cm studio:
A photograph of the holotype specimen discovered by Stromer which was destroyed in WW2. On the lower right is the tip of the lower jaw of spinosaurus. Not only does it look crocodilian, it even looks more like a gavial snout, which would indeed make it quite narrow.
If anything, the head of the animatronic spinosaurus seems still too wide & foreshortened. Quoting from an online source which seems accurate: "New Moroccan cranial specimens referred to Spinosaurus cf. S. aegyptiacus put a midline flare on the nasals and provide evidence for an individual potentially 16 to 18 meters long, the longest theropod known. A chunk of extremely elongated and narrow snout[/color] just shy of a meter long is responsible for this; the premaxillae {note--these are the bones at the tip of the snout} are particularly drawn out, looking almost like a poorly-considered afterthought. "