The Story of Spinosaurus

A new video about Spinosaurus, yes one of the most famous and iconic dinosaurs of the early Cretaceous.

Tell Me More!

In this video I tell the story of the initial discovery of Spinosaurus, it’s sad destruction and recent resurrection. Is it an aquatic swimming dinosaur? Or something else?

Here are some recent papers for further reading if you are interested in Spinosaurus that I reference in the video:

Amiot, R et al. 2010 Oxygen isotope evidence for semi-aquatic habits among spinosaurid theropods. Geology 38:139-142 DOI:10.1130/G30402.1

Ibrahim, N. et al. 2014. Semiaquatic adaptations in a giant predatory dinosaur. Science 345, 1613–1616 (2014).

[robertemmons]

Welcome back! It's good to see you on YouTube again. I love learning about the subjects that you show us in your videos.

[christopherholder]

Your segments never disappoint.

Thank you.

[claraallen]

Excellent!! I learn so well when there is a 'story' involved. Great balance of story (humanistic) and scientific!!

[vinnynorthwest]

Great video! Very interesting and well told! Thanks!

[tyrantking]

I'm so glad you back again Benjamin

[charlesjmouse]

Excellent, thank you.
FWVLIW: Spinosaurus strikes me as an enormous analogue of a fish-eating wading bird. A further thought is if that hard to pin down sail might in part have been used to attract fish by casting a shadow on the water? Some species of wading birds use shade from their wings to attract prey - I wonder if the outline of a Spinosaurus might look like a river bank to hide under to a fish? Checking that with a scale model might be fun.

[laurachapple]

I got to meet Dr. Ibrahim once. I'm not sure I believe some of his theories but I could tell how much he loves this animal.

[GFM]

I'm excited that you're posting more videos again!

[Salamander]

This is a wonderful video!! It's amazing that you know all that stuff about Markov (is that how it's spelled?)

[ryanangeli]

I’m so glad you’re posting videos again!! I use you a lot and the Your Dinosaurs are Wrong channel in my studies 🦕 🦖

[Coachloli]

This is one of the thing that keeps me going 💪

[stevemackelprang]

had never heard of this critter, the Dimetrodon was the only one I was aware that had that big sail affair on its back... seems that wouldn't be very streamlined when fully submerged and moving forward... ichthyosaurs don't have it, , the snout looks like a croc.. I'm voting mixed land water menace lol cheers! nice to see you back and posting

[ARCtheCartoonMaster]

Yeah, that thing about the proportions being off due to different specimens being referenced is so accurate. Unfortunately, _Stegosaurus_ has been a victim of that for decades, leading to being depicted with significantly longer hind legs than front legs.

[billkallas]

Did Spinosaurus go extinct after 5 million years? Most people think that any Dinos that were around in the Cretaceous were around until the "big boom".

[danielmalinen]

The story of the holotype of the spinosaurus being completely destroyed and leaving no traces in the Second World War is undoubtedly an interesting story, but the reason for the popularity of the spinosaurus seems to be its characteristic sail and the appearance of the dino in the third Jurassic Park movie which skyrocketed its popularity. In addition, every year researchers publish a new paper that changes the appearance of spinosaurus or refutes the previous study which of course attracts a lot of attention. For example, the latest paper tells that with the current short-legged restoration of the spinosaurus, its femur and pelvis wouldn't support its body weight and would prevent this animal from walking, so some researchers put forward the idea that Spinosaurus is a chimera of different individuals and the legs belong to a younger juvenile individual. The previous paper talked about how Spinosaurus would not be good for swimming and diving because its body would be unstable in water and the animal's buoyancy is weak, in addition to which Spinosaurus does not have enough muscle power to get back on its feet and crank up the sail if it were to fall on its side in the water and the sail would go under the water, causing it to drown.

[zandorvorkov]

I'm still convinced it was arboreal.

[jaimibingley]

You do know that the Spinosaurus also appeared in the first episode of Planet Dinosaur, don't you because I happen to have Planet Dinosaur on DVD.

[terrysyvertson]

the short legs could be from a juvenile spinosaurus or a completely different species of animal

[premix]

Still waiting for a spinasaurus to be found in the north America, maybe the Colorado plat

[newgunbound]

Hey this is Carlos. I saw a bison having similar spines, that's the support for the big muscle on top of the back. Maybe it is not a sail, maybe it is for air bags to float.