Spinosaurus

• Basic skull diagram/terminology.
• Two different suggestions of skull shape/design.
• Skeletal.
• Potential size indicated by a large jaw specimen (Background).
• Only known photo of the now destroyed Holotype.
• The sketch figure from the original paper.
• Sketch of Holotype jaw.

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Spinosaurus (meaning "spine lizard") is a genus of theropod dinosaur which lived in what is now North Africa, sometime during the Albian and Cenomanian stages of the Cretaceous period, about 112 to 93.5 million years ago.

This genus was first known from Egyptian remains discovered in the 1910s and described by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer. These original remains were destroyed in World War II, but additional skull material has come to light in recent years. It is unclear whether one or two species are represented in the described fossils. The best known species is S. aegyptiacus from Egypt, although a potential second species, S. marocannus, has been recovered from Morocco.

The distinctive spines of Spinosaurus, which were long extensions of the vertebrae, grew up to 2 meters (7 ft) long and were likely to be covered in muscle and formed a hump or ridge. Multiple functions have been put forward for this structure, including thermoregulation and display. According to recent estimates, Spinosaurus is the longest of all known carnivorous dinosaurs, larger than Tyrannosaurus rex and Giganotosaurus.