In our sixth episode of I Know Dino, we had the pleasure of speaking with Keiron Pim, author of the book Dinosaurs: The Grand Tour, published by The Experiment Publishing (known as The Bumper Book of Dinosaurs in the U.K.).
Learn more about Keiron at his website, keironpim.co.uk. Keiron was also kind enough to recommend Darren Naish’s blog, Tetrapod Zoology, on Scientific American, for those who want to read up more on dinosaurs.
You can listen to our free podcast, with all our episodes, on iTunes at:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i-know-dino/id960976813?mt=2
In this episode, we discuss:
- The dinosaur of the day: Spinosaurus, which means “Spiny Lizard.”
- Spinosaurus was bigger than T-rex, but it would not have been able to fight well on land. It could be as long as 49 feet.
- Spinosaurus lived in the late Cretaceous, about 110-95 million years ago, in North Africa.
- Ernst Stromer discovered the first Spinosaurus in 1915, but the original fossils were destroyed in WWII.
- Spinosaurus had a long head, great for catching fish. It could live on both land and in water, like a modern crocodile (and the first dinosaur to have taken to water).
- Spinosaurus had long spine extensions that grew to 6 feet long and were probably connected to the spine via skin. This gave them a sail-like structure.
- Spinosaurus also scavenged and ate dinosaurs in addition to fish. Its conical teeth raked in fish, and its powerful arms with hooked claws could also catch prey.
- Spinosaurus was part of the Spinosauridae family, which were theropods (a group of mostly carnivorous dinosaurs that evolved into birds). Spinosaurids have been found in Africa, Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia.
- What Spinosaurids ate depended on their size. One was found with a pterosaur in its stomach contents.
- Fun Fact: There are two kinds of dinosaurs, lizard-hipped saurischians and bird-hipped ornithischians. Modern birds came from the lizard-hipped dinosaurs.
For those who may prefer reading, see below for the full transcript of our interview with author Keiron Pim:Continue Reading …
