Suchomimus

Suchomimus

Taxobox
name = "Suchomimus"
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous



image_width = 180px
image_caption = "Suchomimus tenerensis"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsid
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Saurischia
subordo = Theropoda
familia = Spinosauridae
subfamilia = Baryonychinae
genus = "Suchomimus"
genus_authority = Sereno "et. al", 1998
subdivision_ranks=Species
subdivision=
*"S. tenerensis" Sereno "et. al", 1998 (type)

Suchomimus ("crocodile mimic") is a genus of large spinosaurid dinosaur with a crocodile-like mouth that lived 110 to 120 million years ago, during the middle portion of the Cretaceous period in Africa.

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"Suchomimus" also had a tall extension of its vertebrae which may have held up some kind of low flap, ridge or sail of skin, as seen in much more exaggerated form in "Spinosaurus". Detailed study shows that the specimen of "Suchomimus" was a subadult about 11 meters (36 ft) in length, but scientists think that it may have grown to about 12 meters (40 ft) long, approaching the size of "Tyrannosaurus". The overall impression is of a massive and powerful creature that ate fish and presumably other sorts of meat (carrion, if naught else) more than 100 million years ago, when the Sahara was a lush, swampy habitat.

Etymology and taxonomic history

"Suchomimus" has been placed among the spinosaurids, a group of predator-scavengers adapted for hunting fish but with frail bone structures (particularly their skulls), especially when compared to other similarly sized theropods, like the tyrannosaurids. Apart from the back ridge, "Suchomimus" was very similar to the spinosaurid "Baryonyx" which also had strong forelimbs and a huge sickle-curved claw on its "thumb". And, as with "Baryonyx", the claw was the first fossil part to be noticed by palaeontologists. "Suchomimus" was considerably larger than "Baryonyx", but a few paleontologists have suggested that the latter might almost have been a juvenile of the former.

Discovery

After discovering new specimens of "Carcharodontosaurus" and "Sarcosuchus", Chicago-based palaeontologist Paul Sereno and his team added a discovery in 1997. In the Sahara, near the Tenere Desert in Niger, they found fossils that represented about two-thirds of the skeleton of a huge meat-eater. This was named "Suchomimus" ("crocodile mimic") after the shape of its head.

References

*Holtz, Thomas R., Jr. (1998). " [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/282/5392/1276 Spinosaurs as crocodile mimics] ". "Science" 282(5392): 1276-1277 DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5392.1276.

External links

* [http://www.projectexploration.org/suchomimus.htm Paul Sereno - Project Exploration Suchomimus Fact Sheet] , at "Project Exploration".
* [http://www.projectexploration.org/niger2000/9_25_2000.htm Photos of Suchomimus Skeleton in Niger] , at "Project Exploration".


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