Creatures of Albian-Cenomanian North Africa: P.T 2

The spinosaurs continue.

Here we have Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, probably the most famous resident of Africa during this time period.

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus was a very large theropod (more on that later). It has material from across the Sahara Desert, suggesting it was very widespread. It probably managed to distribute so far because of it swimming abilities. Unlike S. maroccanus/S. brevicollis, this species was more suited to swimming and punting around on the bottom. This is seen in its foot claws, which are much flatter than that of Sigil, its thigh bones, which have bigger muscle attachments, its legs, which proportionally thinner and shorter, and its massive sail,  which would have added a lot of weight onto the animal proportionally than that of Sigil. 

Now, a lot of people think that Spinosaurus aegyptiacus is the largest theropod dinosaur to ever walk the Earth. This was true for some time, as the giant skull fragment, MSNM V4047, was attributed to this species. This suggests an animal around 15 meters in length, making it the longest theropod yet discovered. However, not too long ago, in the olden days of 2016, (our scale lord and savior) GDI'd Ibrahim's Spinosaurus skeletal, which to this day still stands as the most accurate skeletal of this genus yet, despite what you may have heard. 

franoys.deviantart.com/journal…

According to his GDI matlab script, a 15 meter S. aegyptiacus would only weigh in at around 7.5 tonnes, which is still heavy, but not as heavy as some of the largest T.rex specimens. However, as I said before, the MSNM V4047 skull might not actually belong to S. aegyptiacus (more on that in a later deviation). If we take MSNM V4047 from the pile of spinosaur remains that are labeled under S. aegyptiacus, than we get something interesting: Several, mature individuals that are possibly the largest S. aegyptiacus specimens known. They are IPHG 1912 (the Holotype), NHMUK 16665, and MNHM.KK378. All these specimens are mature adults, but the thing is they probably weren't 15 meters in length. According to , all these specimens fall into the 11.5-12 meter range (Holotype: 11.52 meters; MNHM.KK378: 11.6 meters; NHMUK 16665: 12 meters). Now, does this mean that S. aegyptiacus never got to 15 meters in length? Of course not. It is totally possible that it could have reached 15 meters in length since even adult animals grow quite a bit after they reached sexual maturity. It's just that we don't have that many specimens fitting the 15 meter range (in fact, none at all). So while I have interpreted this S. aegyptiacus at around the 11.5-12 meter adult, the 15 meter estimates still remain possible.

Also, while MSNM V4047 probably isn't S. aegyptiacus proper anymore, that doesn't mean we don't have any upper jaw bones from this species. May I introduce you to NHMUK 16665, probably the most complete S. aegyptiacus upper jaw we found yet.

www.researchgate.net/profile/E…

This specimen shows some interesting characteristics about the species. For example, the jaws are thinner than those of MSNM V4047. Even when you scale them to the same size, NHMUK 16665 has slender jaws compared to the other, very complete Spinosaurus upper jaw. It also has a slight concave curve on the top of its skull. This probably means this species was probably tackling "small" prey (will be explained in depth in the ecology section).

ECOLOGY: S. aegyptiacus is the largest predator in what will one day be North Central and North East Africa. It's greatly suited to life in the water, with webbed feet, heavy bones, powerful legs, nostrils high up on the snout, and a long steering tail. It could distribute so freely from the three separate landmasses that make up Cenomanian Africa because they can swim from one place to another easily. S. aegyptiacus hunts down medium-sized fish, such as giant bichirs and youn individuals of Mawsonia and Onchopristis. They can come onto land, but they don't need to. Males spend most of their life in the water, with females coming out of the water to lay their eggs. They are usually free from competition in most of their range, but on the North West side of Africa, they have to compete with large crocodilians and other types of spinosaurs.

Oh, and the dude on the other side of the paper? That will be our next creature.

BTW, I'll probably start only drawing on one side cause then my art looks more refined and I don't give away the next animal I'll be drawing. Also because forced me to XD.

NOTE: The references I used to make this drawing are not mine. The full body reconstruction of S. aegyptiacus is based of 's higher quality version of Ibrahim's skeletal.</i>