20 Spinosaurus Questions and Answers.

Ever since we saw the spinosaurus appear menacingly looking at the heros of Jurassic Park 3, it has been the dinosaur of nightmares. Although it has been well known to scientists for many years there is little information available about the scary Spinosaurus and its huge sail.

We take a look at some of the questions and answers about this huge dinosaur. Including who would really win in a fight between spinosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus Rex!

Here are 20 questions and answers about one of the biggest dinosaurs ever to walk the Earth, the Spinosaurus!

20 Questions and Answers about the Spinosaurus.

How Long was the Spinosaurus?

The Spinosaurus was one of the biggest dinosaurs that ever lived. The body could be between as 46 – 59 (14-16 meters!)feet long from head to tail. That is about a coach and a half long. It was both longer and heavier than a Tyrannosaurus Rex

How Big was the Spinosaurus Head?

The SpinoSaurus head was about 5 to 6 feet long! That’s almost as big as a full-grown person, and that head and mouth was full of sharp pointy teeth to grab its food with.

How Fast Could the Spinosaurus Run?

Although we have never seen a Spinosaurus run, and are very thankful for that!! Scientists estimate that the Spinosaurus could run at around 15 miles an hour, which is about 23 kilometers an hour. it is thought though that it would have favoured ambush predator tactics rather than actively chasing prey.

How Tall was the Spinosaurus ?

The Spinosaurus would have been about 20 ft or 6 metres tall along its spine. It really was a massive dinosaur.

How Heavy was the Spinosaurus?

.The Spinosaurus was heavier as well as longer than a T-rex. It could be between 12,000 to 20, 000 kg, 13-22 Tons or 26,000 to 44000 lbs!!

Dinosaur	Weight in Pounds	Weight in Kilograms	Weight in tons
Spinosauus	26,000 – 44,000	12,000 – 20,000 Kg	13-22 tons

What was the Bite Force of a Spinosaurus?

The bite force of a SpinoSaurus was around 4200 pounds per square inch! Which is similar to todays’ crocodiles, but much less than a Tyrannosaurus rex at over 12000 lbs per square inch. .

Tyrannosaurus Rex: 20 Questions and Answers.

What Did a Spinosaurus Eat?

Spinosaurus has been judged to have eaten both fish, marine reptiles and land animals, just like todays crocodiles. Scientists have found fish scales, bones of iguanodon and even plesiosaur bones in its fossilized remains.

Where Did the Spinosaurus Live?

The SpinoSaurus lived in what is now North Africa about 100 million years ago. the area looked very different to how it looks today though. there was much more water, swamps and plant life. A good job for a dinosaur that eats fish!

What Movies Have Featured a Spinosaurus?

The SpinoSaurus has been featured in a few movies, including Jurassic Park III and in Jurassic World. In Jurassic Park three it was seen to beat a T-Rex in a fight, although we are not sure if this would really happen. ( see below)

When Did the Spinosaurus become Extinct?

The SpinoSaurus did not live at the same time as the T-rex and in fact became extinct about 30 million years before the first Tyrannosaurus Rex even appeared. ( so that fight we mention above would have been difficult to see!) The Spinosaurus lived around 94-110 million years ago in a period called the Cenomanian and Albian Ages.

The Spinosaurus was long gone when the asteroid crashed into the earth 65 million years ago and went extinct around 94 million years ago, this was likely due to environmental issues in its habitat like drying of coasts and rivers. As these areas reduced it would have put pressure on them and increased their competition with other large predators.

Swimming Dinosaurs – The Water Dinosaurs

Could the Spinosaurus Swim?

.There was an ongoing debate about the swimming abilities of the Spinosaurus, but the majority firmly believes that this dinosaur certainly could swim. The debate has moved onto how good it was at swimming, however the tail was developed to provide thrust through water much more so that other large carnivores, its diet of fish and other marine reptiles certainly suggest it was willing to go into the water and not just hunt the banks.

In fact as recently as 2020 scientists discovered more tail bones of the spinosaurus that suggest it may have had 8 times more power in water than other dinosaurs, meaning it could in all likelihood hunt in the water as well as ambush.

What does the name Spinosaurus Mean?

The name SpinoSaurus means “spiny lizard.” The dinosaur got its name because of the spines on its back! Although some scientists have put forward the idea that it may have been a hump and not a sail!

Was SpinoSaurus the Biggest Predator on Land?

This is the ultimate question, and still rages on today. At the moment there is no doubt that with the fossils we have discovered to date that Spinosaurus was the longest predator, due to this size it was likely heavier as well. So yes, Spinosaurus was the largest carnivore on Earth.

But wait a minute, didn’t Spinosaurus live in both water and the land? Yes it did and this is where some of the arguments reappear, Dinosaurs like T-rex and Giganotosaurus lived solely on land and have some claim to the title that they were the biggest predator on Earth!

Lets leave it at this, Spinosaurus was massive and if you were to meet it, a T-Rex, a giganotosaurus or even a compsognathus you would still be terrified!

Was SpinoSaurus Warm or Cold Blooded?

Although there is still debate on which, or if all dinosaurs were warm blooded, the active lifestyle that they had leans towards them have a high enough metabolic ( how much they use energy) rate to be warm blooded. Spinosaurus was therefore likely to be a warm-blooded dinosaur.

if you say it wasn’t though, there is not a great deal anyone can do to disprove you as we just simply don’t have all the information yet.

What Color was the SpinoSaurus?

The short answer is we have no idea, it could have been purple like Barney the dinosaur for what we know so far. However, that is somewhat unlikely for an animal that has to hunt other animals for food as it would be seen from miles away!

It is likely the Spinosaurus had some sort of camouflaging that adapted it to its environment, it Jurassic Park 3 they had it as light and dark grey with the kin like and elephant however your guess is just as good as theirs!

At least if it was bright purple it might make it less scary looking!

How Much Does a SpinoSaurus Skeleton cost?

We can’t answer this question, not because we don’t know or because we don’t want to btu as with lots of the Larger dinosaurs full skeletons are incredible hard to find. A full skeleton of a spinosaurus has ever been found and we have to work out from the fossils we have found, what it would have looked like and how big it was. We can be sure if one is ever found it would costs millions and millions of dollars though.

However one thing we do find a lot of are Spinosaurus teeth, it had so many! and these are relatively inexpensive to buy if you wanted to own one! See below.

How Long were SpinoSaurus Teeth?

SpinoSaurus teeth could be about 5 inches long, and they had upto 64 of them in their mouths, that’s twice as many as people have. They would have been longer but the crown ( the bit that you can see) was 5 inches, and the rest was in their jaw.

Average teeth length of a Spinosaurus would have been about 2-3 inches long though. they were pointed to help them stab and grab fish easier. They certainly had a lot of sharp teeth to take down prey!

Can You Buy Spinosaurus Teeth?

Yes, you can actually buy spinosaurus teeth online! They make a great addition to any dinosaur lover’s collection! The bigger they are the more expensive they are, but a small one will be about 20-40 US dollars.

Who Would Win in a Fight between a Tyrannosaurus and a Spinosaurus?

Ever since the Spinosaurus broke the neck of the T-rex in Jurassic park 3 this debate has raged, on and on on!

Realistically, if we can say that talking about this, it is a fight that has never occured. They are separated by 30 million years! However for the sake of argument, and we might write a larger piece on this later, lets take a look at who would win.

It is a fairly simple answer, on land its the T-rex in water its the Spinosaurus (maybe) but we will explain why.

The T-Rex was the apex predator on land during its time, a massive block or muscle and teeth that could rip and cut with over 12,000 lb bite force. The spinosaurus had sharp teeth designed more of gripping and stabbing fish rather than the back of a similar sized dinosaur. The T-rex would have to get one bite on the sail (or hump possibly) of a spinosaurus to break its back and paralyze it.

However in water this may be a different story, the Spinosaurus, according to more recent discoveries was actually more agile in water that first thought. it could use that advantage to wear down a T-Rex, who lets face it could probably swim a little but as well as an elephant compared to a crocodile.

Even in this environment though, if the T-rex gets a bite in then the spinosaurus would start to struggle. So while it could certainly cause damage, winning might be taking it too far.

Tyrannosaurus Rex Facts

Why Did Spinosaurus Have a Big Sail on its Back?

This is quite the question, and there are a number of theories that circle around at different times and different scientific groups. We will list them as there are plenty of sites that are dedicated to this alone!

The theories about the Spinosaurus’s Huge Sail:

• It wasn’t a sail it was a hump used to store fat
• It was used to display to potential mates
• It was used to help it herd fish
• It was used to make it look bigger and more threatening (not sure how much more threatening it needed to look though)
• it was used to spread heat around and cool down / heat up more effectively
• They used it to catch the wind while in water and actually sail ( literally no idea who thought of this one)

In reality it was likely a combination of some of those ( i doubt the last one very much though) and the sail was probably used to regulate heat, and as a hunting tool if it did indeed hunt fish like a thresher shark and slap its huge tail around to stun prey.

Do’t forget we have loads more questions and answers and facts about dinosaurs on this site and you can browse through some of your favorites here!

Finally.

Hopefully there are some answers to your spinosaurus questions here, and f you have more questions you can cement an we can try to answer them

. However until a full skeleton is found a lot remains unknown, and all we can do it give our best theories rather than concrete facts about this the largest of the carnivorous dinosaurs

Some of My Dinosaur Resource Recommendations for Home and School.

Thanks for taking the time to read our facts and questions articles, as a teacher myself i have struggled to find resources in one place and that is why this website was born. I simply love teaching students about dinosaurs both in my role as a language and General Studies teacher. However there is sometimes a need for something more concrete than a printout (as useful as we think ours are! )

There is something awesome about the feeling of awe that these amazing creatures instil in our children and students. To further help you, and potentially me, i have included a few resources below that i have found to be incredibly successful when explaining dinosaurs to children, these range form books and resources, to toys fossils and dinosaur figures.

Sometimes having something tactile to touch in those tiny hands help to focus and cement learning and develop those big brains! Hope they are helpful too.

Dinosaur Books and Readers

There are of course hundreds of excellent, and not so excellent books on Dinosaurs for Children out there. So rather than, yet, go into huge detail. I will highlight the ones I love to use with my students from ages 6 to 10. We have include AR in these as well. ( nothing quite like a moving dinosaur in front of you!

Fossil Sets

I cant say how great these are to use in a classroom while reading with a group. the chance to read about a dinosaur and then touch a real piece is simply great. I have a selection ( self confessed dinosaur geek) but a cheap set of 10 or so will do the trick just as well. Dinosaur poop is great as well!!! i pass it round and ask them to guess what it is first!

Dinosaur Figures

I actually use realia in a lot of classes especially with animals and dinosaurs, and figures help to show the kind of animal we are reading about. It is possible to spend hundreds of dollars on dinosaur figures but ther eis no need, either as a teacher or a parent. The set below and similar we have used to help students picture dinosaurs to great effect.

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