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The star of "Jurassic Park III," the Spinosaurus is one of the strangest
of the large meat-eaters. What makes it so different is the large sail on its back, formed by spines that grew as tall as
six feet. No one knows exactly why it had these on its back, but it is possible that they helped to regulate body temperature,
or maybe they were used as a display during courtship. The other really interesting thing about this huge dinosaur was its
diet - it seems to be designed to eat mostly fish!
The teeth of Spinosaurus are designed differently from any
of the large carnivores. They are long and conical-shaped, the kind found on reptiles that eat mostly fish. How could something
this large be so specially designed to eat mostly fish? It probably lived along the shore where fairly large fish were abundant.
Of course, it could also have eaten just about anything else it could catch.
What is interesting is that there were
two other dinosaurs living at the same time and in the same vicinity as Spinosaurus who also had large sails on their
backs. What was it about this region that gave rise to this body type?
At one time, there was an almost complete specimen
on display in a museum in Germany. However, it was completely destroyed and lost forever during the bombing of Germany in
WWII. |
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