Suchomimus
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Suchomimus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 121–113 Ma |
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| Cast of the skeleton, Sternberg Museum of Natural History | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Family: | †Spinosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Baryonychinae |
| Genus: |
†Suchomimus Sereno et al., 1998 |
| Species: | †S. tenerensis |
| Binomial name | |
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Suchomimus tenerensis Sereno et al., 1998 |
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| Synonyms | |
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Baryonyx tenerensis (Sereno et al., 1998) Sues et al., 2002 [originally Suchomimus] |
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Baryonyx tenerensis (Sereno et al., 1998) Sues et al., 2002 [originally Suchomimus]
Suchomimus ("crocodile mimic") is a genus of large spinosaurid dinosaur with a crocodile-like skull that lived between 121–113 million years ago, during the late Aptian stage of the Cretaceous period in Niger, Africa. The only species named in the genus is Suchomimus tenerensis.
The length of the type specimen of Suchomimus, a subadult, was initially estimated at 10.3–11 m (34–36 ft). Its weight was estimated at between 2.7 and 5.2 tonnes (2.7 and 5.1 long tons; 3.0 and 5.7 short tons). In 2010, Gregory S. Paul gave lower estimations of 9.5 metres and 2.5 tonnes.
The describers established some unique derived traits or autapomorphies of Suchomimus. The praemaxilla has an upward branch excluding the maxilla from the bony nostril. The neural spines on the rear dorsal, sacral and front tail vertebrae are expanded in side view. The upper corners of the humerus are robust. The humerus has a boss above the condyle that contacts the radius, that is hook-shaped.
Unlike most giant theropods, Suchomimus had a very long, low snout and narrow jaws, formed by a forward expansion of the premaxilla and the anterior ramus of the maxilla. The jaws have about 122 conical teeth, pointed but not very sharp and curving slightly backward, with fine serrations. The tip of the snout was enlarged sideways and carried a "rosette" of longer teeth, seven per side in the skull and about the same number in the corresponding part of the lower jaw. Further back, there are at least twenty-two teeth per upper jaw side in the maxilla, while the entire lower jaw side carries thirty-two teeth in the dentary bone. The upper jaw shows a prominent kink just behind the rosette, protruding to below; this convexly curved part of the maxilla has the longest teeth of the entire skull. The skull is reminiscent of that of crocodilians that eat mainly fish. The internal bone shelves of the maxillae meet each other over a long distance, forming a closed front palate rigidifying the snout. The nostrils are long, narrow and horizontally positioned; the same is true of the larger antorbital fenestra. The rear of the skull is poorly known but a short quadrate, separated from the quadratojugal by a large foramen quadraticum, shows it must have been low. The lower jaws are very elongated and narrow, forming a rigid structure as their dentaries touch each other at the midline, reinforcing the mandible against torsional forces.
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