25 Spinosaurus Facts For Kids.
The first time you may have seen this towering dinosaur was when it walked out of the jungle in Jurassic world three. Huge, scary and clearly very hungry. It later went on to fight a T-Rex, controversially winning! ( more on that later) However with its over 50 feet long body, its 64 four teeth, its 5 inch long claws and its ability to swim, has captured the imagination almost as much as the tyrannosaurus!
The Spinosaurus was a theropod dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous period. (99-96 Million Years ago) It was distinguishable by the elongated jaw, the large sail on its back and its probable swimming abilities. Spinosaurus is one of the largest known carnivores, reaching lengths of up to 52 feet (16 meters).
We know a lot about the Scary Spinosaurus, but there is always more to learn and we have 25 facts especially for you below with a FREE printable Spinosaurus fact sheet to download – print – and collect as well.
Quick Spinosaurus facts
Spinosaurus could be between as 46 – 59 (14-16 meters!) feet long from head to tail.
The Spinosaurus head was about 5 to 6 feet long
The Spinosaurus would have been about 20 ft or 6 meters tall along its spine
The Spinosaurus lived around 94-110 million years ago in a period called the Cenomanian and Albian Ages
The name Spinosaurus means “spiny lizard.” The dinosaur got its name because of the spines on its back!
Most scientists firmly believe that this dinosaur certainly could swim. In fact they think the tail of the Spinosaurus was very powerful and shaped to help it swim.
Spinosaurus is one of the easier dinosaur names to say: Spy – no – Saw – Rus.
You will also find a printout with 20 facts about the Scary Spinosaurus that you can download, print and collect to go with the others we have for FREE on the site. Check it out below.
25 Spinosaurus Facts for Kids
1. 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. At its largest size it was bigger than both Tyrannosaurus rex and Giganotosaurus!
2. The Spinosaurus head was about 5 to 6 feet long! That’s almost as big as a full-grown person, so you would have made a tasty snack for them!
3. Scientists estimate that the Spinosaurus could run at around 15 miles an hour, which is about 23 kilometers an hour. Larger dinosaurs were never going to win speed records as the stress it would put on their legs would be too much
4. The Spinosaurus would have been about 20 ft or 6 meters tall along its spine. That’s about twice as tall as an elephant.
5. 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!! To use the elephant again that means it weighed as much as 3 elephants.
| Dinosaur | Weight in Pounds | Weight in Kilograms | Weight in tons |
| Spinosauus | 26,000 – 44,000 | 12,000 – 20,000 Kg | 13-22 tons |
6. The bite force of a Spinosaurus was around 4200 pounds per square inch! Which is more than enough to catch the fish and other animals it liked to eat.
7. Spinosaurus has been found to have eaten both fish, marine reptiles and land animals. this means it hunted both on land and in the water.
8. The Spinosaurus lived in what is now North Africa about 100 million years ago, this is very dry now, but then it had rivers and lakes.
9. The Spinosaurus lived around 94-110 million years ago in a period called the Cenomanian and Albian Ages.This is about 30 million years before two other popular dinosaurs the triceratops and the T-Rex.
10.Most scientists firmly believe that spinosaurus certainly could swim. In fact the think the tail of the Spinosaurus would have been very powerful and used to help it swim through the water. It may have been quite flat so it could push more water, a little like a thresher shark.
11. The name Spinosaurus means “spiny lizard.” The dinosaur got its name because of the spines on its back! Which some people think may have formed a hump and not a sail and full of fat. However, most scientists still think it was a sail that was used to display and to regulate heat.
12. Spinosaurus was the longest predator, due to this size it was likely heavier as well. So yes, Spinosaurus was the largest carnivore on Earth. it was clearly very heavy due to its size, but it was less bulky that the other theapod ( walk on two legs) dinosaurs like T-Rex, Carcharodontosaurus and Giganotosaurus. You can read more about how big a Spinosaurus was here.
13. Spinosaurus was likely to be a warm-blooded dinosaur. Although there is still three sides of the argument that say all dinosaurs were, some dinosaurs were and no dinosaurs were warm-blooded. We are still studying to find the answer.
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.
14. 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.
15. 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!
16. There are many ideas on what the sail of the Spinosaurus was used for these include.
The following are all ideas that have been suggested the Spinosaurus sail was used for.
- 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)
17. A full Skeleton of Spinosaurus has never been found, only parts that have then been pieced together. This is fairly common for larger dinosaurs and there are frustratingly few complete skeletons. Although after 300-65 million years we can understand why.
18. Ever since the Spinosaurus broke the neck of the T-rex in Jurassic park 3 the debate has raged, on and on on! Who would win in a fight between Spinosaurus and T-Rex
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.
19. You can buy Spinosaurus teeth for your fossil collection. They usually sell for between 20-40 dollars for a small one. They are both cheaper and easier to find than other large carnivore teeth!
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.
20. Spinosaurus became extinct around 90 million years ago, likely due to its habitat changing and food becoming scarcer. So it was an older dinosaur that both triceratops and tyrannosaurus.
21. Spinosaurus was a therapod dinosaur. These are dinosaurs that used their hind legs to walk and their name means beast foot ( although most of these dinosaurs had feet that looked more like birds!)
Printable Spinosaurus Coloring Pages ( and other dinosaurs)
22. Spinosaurus has some smaller family members which have made an appearance in movie and games, the Baryonyx and the Suchomimus.
23. The first Spinosaurus was found in Africa in 1915, by Ernst Stromer. However these were destroyed in the second world war.
24. The Spinosaurus had over 60 teeth, but they were not the only weapon it could use to fight and hunt. On its forelegs / arms it had large sharp claws, up to 5-6 inches long. We saw on for sale for 4,500 Dollars which is a lot for a fingernail!
25. The Spinosaurus has even been featured on the stamps of some countries, including African countries such as Angola, Tunisia, Gambia and Liberia.
Conclusion
The Spinosaurus has become a popular dinosaur with both adults and children. Even before its appearance in Camp Cretaceous and Jurassic World 3. With its massive size, toothy mouth and swimming ability it was a truly awe inspiring sight. Hopefully, this article has provided some good information for you all who want to learn more about it.
If you want some more Dinosaur facts you can check out our other articles here, and our questions and answers articles here as well.
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.
Hi, I am Roy Ford a General Studies and English Teacher who has taught all over the world. What started as a fossil collection became a great way to teach, motivate and inspire students of all ages and all over the world about dinosaurs and from that and children’s love of dinosaurs came the site dinosaur facts for kids, a resource for all ages.
