Spinosaurus

Spinosaurus is a genus of large spinosaurid theropod dinosaurs that lived in what is now North Africa during the Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous period, about 100 to 94 million years ago. The genus was known first from Egyptian remains discovered in 1912 and described by German palaeontologist Ernst Stromer in 1915. The original remains were destroyed in World War II, but additional material came to light in the early 21st century. It is unclear whether one or two species are represented in the fossils reported in the scientific literature. The type species, S. aegyptiacus, is mainly known from the Bahariya Formation in Egypt and the Kem Kem beds in Morocco. The other species, S. mirabilis, is known from the Farak Formation in Niger. Possible junior synonyms include Sigilmassasaurus and the dubious S. maroccanus from the Kem Kem beds and Oxalaia from the Alcântara Formation in Brazil, though the distinction and validity of these taxa have been debated.

A picture published with the record for Spinosaurus.

3blindMies · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
SpinosauriniPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Theropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda
Length
14 mWikidata
Mass
38000 poundWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 26 million years on record.

The record covers at least 110.1 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 72.2 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 44 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 11 of 44 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 33 of 44 occurrencesLate Cretaceous145–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–140 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences140–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–135 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences135–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences132–130 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences130–127 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences125–122 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences122–120 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences120–117 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 1 occurrence113–110 Mya — about 1 occurrence110–108 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 1 occurrence105–103 Mya — about 2 occurrences103–100 Mya — about 3 occurrences100–98 Mya — about 12 occurrences98–95 Mya — about 12 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 7 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences81–78 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences76–73 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences110.1 Mya83.6 Mya145 Mya71 Mya

44 occurrences of Spinosaurus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

44 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

14 formations

Gara Sbaa — 30.51°N, 4.84°WGara Sbaa — 30.90°N, 3.87°WIfezouane — 31.53°N, 4.67°WIfezouane — 31.51°N, 4.08°WIfezouane — 30.88°N, 3.86°WIfezouane — 31.61°N, 4.30°WIfezouane — 31.59°N, 4.18°WAïn el Guettar — 33.17°N, 10.26°EAïn el Guettar — 33.12°N, 10.27°EDouira — 31.57°N, 4.20°WDouira — 31.62°N, 4.27°WBaharîje — 28.43°N, 28.91°EEchkar — 17.93°N, 5.62°EEchkar — 16.28°N, 10.53°EQuseir — 25.62°N, 29.29°EQuseir — 25.49°N, 29.52°EGrès rouges — 31.55°N, 2.43°WGrès rouges — 32.04°N, 2.58°WFarak — 16.97°N, 8.07°EFarak — 17.08°N, 7.82°EBahariya — 28.33°N, 29.12°ELubur Sandstone — 4.27°N, 35.81°EContinental Intercalaire — 33.19°N, 10.29°EGara Samani — 29.67°N, 1.92°EContinental Intercalaire — 28.17°N, 7.07°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Spinosaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Spinosaurus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Spinosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

124 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 35 sites for Spinosaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

26 references

Each of the 44 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 14 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Spinosaurus

Credit
3blindMies
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Born Digital scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Spinosaurus aegyptiacus · ucrc:PV170

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
seirogan
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itSpinosaurini through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Stromer 1915