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Spinosaurus in side view with a tall ribbed sail, long narrow jaws and a deep tail

N° 007 · I. Hunters

Spinosaurus

The River Monster

Say it: SPINE-oh-SORE-us

Species
Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, Stromer 1915
Name means
Egyptian spine lizard
Lived
Late Cretaceous, about 97 million years ago
Found
Egypt and Morocco
Length
About 14 to 15 m
Weight
About 7 tonnes
Diet
Mostly fish

Three things to know

A sail like a billboard

Tall spines along its back held up a sail. Living reptiles with sails like this use them for display, not for swimming.

Swimmer or wader?

A 2020 study found its tall, flexible tail pushed water better than any land dinosaur’s. A 2022 study found the animal too buoyant to dive, and pictures it ambushing fish from the water’s edge.

Lost, then found again

The first bones, found in Egypt in 1912, were destroyed when Munich was bombed in 1944. A new skeleton came to light in Morocco in 2008.

Every fact on this page is traced to a published source, listed at the back of the book.

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Spinosaurus in the book

The real spread of N° 007 from the atlas: the text page with the facts, notes and six signs on the left, the plate on the right.

Spinosaurus in the book: the left-hand text pageSpinosaurus in the book: the right-hand plate page

When and where Spinosaurus lived

Spinosaurus lived about 97 million years ago, in the middle of the Cretaceous, in North Africa. Its world was a land of great rivers and deltas, home to giant fish, crocodile-like reptiles and other large meat-eating dinosaurs. Its fossils come from rocks in Egypt and from the Kem Kem beds of south-eastern Morocco, which preserve the remains of that river system.

How Spinosaurus was discovered and named

The first bones were found in 1912 in the Bahariya Oasis of Egypt, and the German palaeontologist Ernst Stromer named the animal in 1915. Those original fossils were kept in Munich and destroyed when the city was bombed in 1944, leaving only Stromer’s drawings and descriptions. Since the early 2000s new fossils from Morocco have made it possible to study Spinosaurus again, and it has become one of the most debated dinosaurs of all.

How Spinosaurus lived

Spinosaurus had a long, narrow snout like a crocodile’s, filled with cone-shaped teeth made for gripping slippery prey rather than slicing flesh. Fish were almost certainly its main food. The tall spines on its back held up a sail, probably for display. How much time it spent in the water is still argued over: some scientists see a swimmer that chased fish through rivers, others a wading hunter that stood in the shallows. It was one of the longest meat-eating dinosaurs ever found.

Spinosaurus in Glowing Dinosaurs

Spinosaurus is entry N° 007 of the atlas, in the chapter I. Hunters. Its spread follows the same layout as every other dinosaur in the book: on the left, its name and how to say it, the epithet The River Monster, the three facts above, field notes and the six signs that show when it lived, how big it was, how dangerous it would have been, where it was found, what it ate and how it fought. On the right is the full glowing plate: spinosaurus in side view with a tall ribbed sail, long narrow jaws and a deep tail. Two more plates of Spinosaurus appear elsewhere in the book, and each can also be ordered as a signed work for the wall, printed on wood or acrylic under glass. In the same chapter you will also find Tyrannosaurus.

Why Spinosaurus glows

No dinosaur is known to have glowed, and the book says so plainly. The light is the artist’s way of seeing inside the animal: in the plate of Spinosaurus, bones, muscles and outline shine through a dark ground, so the shape of the skull, the length of the neck and tail and the build of the legs can be read at once, the way a fossil skeleton is read in a museum hall. The colours are chosen to separate bone from muscle and to make each animal recognisable across the whole atlas, while every fact printed beside the picture is checked against published research.

Questions about Spinosaurus

How big was Spinosaurus?

Spinosaurus measured about 14 to 15 m from nose to tail and weighed about 7 tonnes. The size panel on its spread in the book draws it beside a person, so its scale can be seen at a glance.

When did Spinosaurus live?

It lived in the Late Cretaceous, about 97 million years ago. On the timeline in the book, its place is marked between the first dinosaurs, about 230 million years ago, and the end of the age of dinosaurs, 66 million years ago.

Where have Spinosaurus fossils been found?

Its fossils have been found in Egypt and Morocco. The map on its spread in the book marks the places where its bones were dug up.

What did Spinosaurus eat?

Its diet: mostly fish. The diet sign in the book shows this with a simple symbol, so young readers can sort the plant-eaters from the meat-eaters.

What does the name Spinosaurus mean?

The name means “egyptian spine lizard”. The full scientific name is Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, Stromer 1915: the genus, the species and the scientist who named it, with the year. It is pronounced SPINE-oh-SORE-us.

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