Suchomimus Fossil range: Early Cretaceous
Suchomimus tenerensis
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Superorder: Dinosauria Order: Saurischia Suborder: Theropoda Family: Spinosauridae Subfamily: Baryonychinae Genus: Suchomimus Species: S. tenerensis
Binomial name
Suchomimus tenerensis Sereno et. al, 1998

Suchomimus ("crocodile mimic") was a large spinosaurid dinosaur with a crocodile-like mouth that lived 110 to 120 million years ago, during the middle portion of the Cretaceous period in Africa. The Early Cretaceous (timestratigraphic name) or the Lower Cretaceous (logstratigraphic name), is the earlier of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous period. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 484 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (1000 × 1239 pixel, file size: 78 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Suchomimus Author:User:ArthurWeasley File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not... The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. ... Three small ammonite fossils, each approximately 1. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. ... Digimon, the only known animals. ... Typical Classes See below Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates. ... Clades Subclass Anapsida Subclass Diapsida Infraclass Lepidosauromorpha Infraclass Archosauromorpha Sauropsids are a diverse group of mostly egg-laying vertebrate animals. ... Orders & Suborders Saurischia Sauropodomorpha Theropoda Ornithischia Thyreophora Ornithopoda Marginocephalia Dinosaurs were vertebrate animals that dominated the terrestrial ecosystem for over 160 million years, first appearing approximately 230 million years ago. ... Groups Sauropodomorpha    Saturnalia    Prosauropoda    Sauropoda Theropoda    Eoraptor    Herrerasauridae    Ceratosauria    Tetanurae       Aves(extant) Saurischians (from the Greek Saurischia meaning lizard hip) are one of the two orders/branches of dinosaurs. ... Subdivisions ?Eoraptor Herrerasauria Coelophysoidea Ceratosauria Cryolophosaurus Spinosauridae Carnosauria Coelurosauria Theropods (beast foot) are a group of bipedal saurischian dinosaurs. ... Spinosauridae is a subdivision of the Theropods. ... Spinosauridae is a subdivision of the Theropods. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is the formal method of naming species. ... Paul C. Sereno (born October 11, 1957) is an American paleontologist who is the discoverer of several new dinosaur species on several continents. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ... Spinosaurids were a group of theropod dinosaurs with crocodile-like jaws, and ,many had sails. ... Orders & Suborders Saurischia Sauropodomorpha Theropoda Ornithischia Thyreophora Ornithopoda Marginocephalia Dinosaurs were vertebrate animals that dominated the terrestrial ecosystem for over 160 million years, first appearing approximately 230 million years ago. ... For other uses, see Crocodile (disambiguation). ... Mega-annum, usually abbreviated as Ma, is a unit of time equal to one million years. ... The Cretaceous Period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic Period (i. ...

Anatomy and Morphology

Unlike most giant theropods, Suchomimus had a very long, low snout and narrow jaws studded with some 100 teeth, not very sharp and curving slightly backward. The tip of the snout was enlarged and carried a "rosette" of longer teeth. The animal is reminiscent of crocodilians that eat mainly fish, such as the living gharial, a type of large crocodile with a very long, slim snout, from the region of India. Families See text Theropods (beast foot) are a group of bipedal, primarily carnivorous dinosaurs, belonging to the saurischian (lizard-hip) family. ... Binomial name Gavialis gangeticus (Gmelin, 1789) The gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is one of two surviving members of the family Gavialidae, a long-established group of crocodile-like reptiles with long, narrow jaws. ...

An art version of Suchomimus head

Suchomimus also had a tall extension of its vertebrae which may have held up some kind of low flap, ridge or sail of skin, as seen in much more exaggerated form in Spinosaurus. Detailed study shows that the specimen of Suchomimus was a subadult about 11 m (36 ft) in length, but scientists think that it may have grown to about the same size as Tyrannosaurus, about 12 m (40 ft) long. The overall impression is of a massive and powerful creature that ate fish and meat more than 100 million years ago, when the Sahara was a lush, swampy habitat. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... A diagram of a thoracic vertebra. ... Species (type) ? Russell, 1996 Spinosaurus (meaning spine lizard) was a theropod dinosaur genus that lived in what is now Egypt, from the Albian to early Cenomanian stages of the Cretaceous Period, about 95 to 93 million years ago. ... Binomial name Tyrannosaurus rex Osborn, 1905 Synonyms Manospondylus Cope, 1892 Dynamosaurus Osborn, 1905 Nanotyrannus? Bakker, Williams & Currie, 1988 Stygivenator Olshevsky, 1995 Dinotyrannus Olshevsky, 1995 Tyrannosaurus (IPA pronunciation or ; from the Greek τυραννόσαυρος, meaning tyrant lizard) is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur. ... A giant grouper at the Georgia Aquarium Fish are aquatic vertebrates that are typically cold-blooded; covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Etymology and Taxonomic History

Suchomimus has been placed among the spinosaurs, a group of predators. Apart from the back ridge, Suchomimus was very similar to Baryonyx which also had strong forelimbs and a huge sickle-curved claw on its "thumb". And, as with Baryonyx, the claw was the first fossil part to be noticed by palaeontologists. Suchomimus was considerably larger than Baryonyx, but a few paleontologists have suggested that the latter might almost have been a juvenile of the former. Binomial name Baryonyx walkeri Charig & Milner, 1986 Baryonyx // meaning heavy claw, referring to its large claw (Greek barus meaning heavy and onyx meaning claw or nail) was a carnivorous dinosaur discovered in clay pits just south of Dorking, England, and northern Spain. ... // This digit is one of the five fingers (though the word finger can also refer exclusively to the non-thumb digits). ... A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. ...

Discovery

After discovering a new specimens of Carcharodontosaurus and the Sarcosuchus, Chicago-based palaeontologist Paul Sereno and his team added a discovery in 1997. In the Sahara, near the Tenere Desert in Niger, they found fossils that represented about two-thirds of the skeleton of a huge meat-eater. This was named Suchomimus ("crocodile mimic") after the shape of its head. Species C. saharicus Depéret & Savornin, 1927 sp. ... Binomial name Sarcosuchus imperator (Broin & Taquet, 1966) Nicknamed the SuperCroc, the prehistoric Sarcosuchus imperator (pronounced SAR-koh-SOO-kiss IM-peh-RAH-tor, and meaning flesh crocodile emperor) from the early Cretaceous of Africa is one of the largest giant crocodile-like reptiles that ever lived. ... A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Tenere is a desert region in the south central Sahara, Niger. ...

External links

• Paul Sereno - Project Exploration Suchomimus Fact Sheet, at Project Exploration.
• Photos of Suchomimus Skeleton in Niger, at Project Exploration.

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