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Headline in NG: Spinosaurus had penguin like bones


Troodon

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Paper finds strong support for aquatic habits in spinosaurids, associated with a marked increase in bone density.

 

Paywalled paper

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04528-0

 

Bone density of Baryonyx appears closer to Spinosaurus than Suchomimus which has lots of implications in its adaptation to aquatic life

 

spdidno.thumb.jpg.f81d0f866914329e0fe4570c1fd8671e.jpg

 

 

National Geo

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/spinosaurus-had-penguin-like-bones-a-sign-of-hunting-underwater

 

Smithsonian

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/heavy-bones-helped-some-species-of-spinosaurs-swim-180979775/

 

 

Phys org

https://phys.org/news/2022-03-dense-bones-spinosaurus-underwater.html

 

I wish we see some publications on other theropods in the KK not just the headliner Spinosaurus

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Some images/Illustrations

 

Screenshot_20220323-122503_Chrome.thumb.jpg.ddf792bfe4b3947171a56d86a8f84d60.jpg

 

FOi8_fNXEAUhPpY.thumb.jpeg.9b86eabeb06af6cdb60f3cf32f969828.jpeg

 

Fabbri stated:

Among spinosaurids, we sampled the neotype of Spinosaurus, the holotype of Baryonyx, and Suchomimus

 

FOi8qq6XoAIjFhq.jpeg.f68a00badb0dbfb92acb6fdbbb211c9d.jpeg

 

Screenshot_20220323-123011_Chrome.thumb.jpg.820494b9cd11f4351752bc69b4ff8cca.jpg

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Thanks, @Troodon! I had a hard time yesterday and early today finding news on this. Glad to finally get a better understanding. Have you seen/heard anything coming from the opposition? Hone and Holtz seemed compelling at the time.

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7 hours ago, Dino Dad 81 said:

Thanks, @Troodon! I had a hard time yesterday and early today finding news on this. Glad to finally get a better understanding. Have you seen/heard anything coming from the opposition? Hone and Holtz seemed compelling at the time.

No and not sure we will.  Bone density is what it is but some may argue how they interpret this adapation to aquatic life.  How much time did they spend in the water.

 

What actually may get more attention is the reconstruction of the two Baryonychinae with notches in the sail area, its fascinating why.  But I have not read the paper since its paywalled.

 

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Anyone know if bears were included in this analysis and/or other decent analogs of huge animals with short legs that wade into the water to hunt but don't tend to fully submerge?

I'm way out of my league here, but this has been a thought provoking subject to me and one of the things that keeps coming to mind is that high femur density may be important for stability/buoyancy even if it's just the lower half that's submerged. Such animals seem fairly uncommon to my layman head and so many of the types of animals that were included in this study seem so unrelated to the hypotheses for spino lifestyle. Spino has always remind me in various ways of bears that rely heavily on fishing and the place they may have occupied in their ecosystem.

 

Hopefully, in addition to the huge dataset used in this study, they also took a look specifically at animals that would have fit well with the "heron style of hunting"--but not where the legs are so long that the animal is out of the water when it wades!

 

@Troodon

 

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I'm not in a position to argue either way since I have yet to read the paper or have studied any of the bones.

 

I've read H and H comments but it's like everything else in the dino world when paleontologists take a position that has been published very few ever come off of it, so not surprised.    It's what I said above you cannot argue the bone density results, but its adaptation can be viewed may ways.   It will be an ongoing debate and I'm not sure what hard evidence can be presented to change anyone's position.

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  • 3 weeks later...

A response to this paper that included Paul Sereno.  Very surprised considering he co-authored Spino papers with Ibrahim

Quote: "Their conclusions are undermined by selective  bone sampling, inaccuracies concerning spinosaurid bone  structure, faulty statistical inferences, and novel redefinition of the term “aquatic"."

 

 

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.13.487781v1

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