Spinosaurus

📖 1. Overview

Reaching up to 15 m in body length, this semiaquatic theropod was the longest of all known carnivorous dinosaurs and had a 1.65 m-tall sail rising from its back.

🌐 Wikipedia Summary Extract

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.

🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology

Using pressure-sensing neurovascular foramina at the tip of its long crocodile-like snout and a vertically broad, fin-like propelling tail like a salamander's, it hunted giant fish.

🔍 3. Fossil Record & Paleoecology

Its adaptation for aquatic swimming was proven by a complete tail skeleton fossil excavated in Morocco in 2020.

🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea

A conical tooth fossil belonging to the spinosaurid lineage was discovered in Early Cretaceous strata in Hadong-gun, Gyeongnam.