Spinosaurus skull restoration,

• Based on the 2005 Del Sasso reconstruction. Which in turn is based on specimins MSNM V4047 (a 998 mm snoat), IPHG 1912 VIII 19 (the front half of the lower jaw), and UCPC-2 (the crest). Rear parts of the skull based on Irritator and other spinosaurs.^[1]

• • Skin is not yet known for Spinosaurus. However, other large theropods with skin impressions have, until recently, shown typical dinosaurian scales. (Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs 1997 Philip J. Currie, Kevin Padian) The skin details in this image are speculative but have been based loosely on what is known in Carnotaurus^[2]. In 2011 Sciurumimus was described which shows a fuzzy body covering, some analysis have found it to be a magalosauroid, the same group that Spinosaurus belongs to. ^[3]. In 2012 Yutyrannus was described, it showed that large theropods could have been covered in feathers ^[4]. Other recent discoveries have suggested that the origin of feathers are further back in the dinosaur family tree and may even predate dinosaurs. These discoveries suggest that it is entirely possible that Spinosaurus could have also have feathers covering its body.

• The colours and/or patterns, as with nearly all reconstructions of prehistoric creatures, are speculative.

NOTE: I often update my images. If you want to have any of my images on a website, please (if possible) don’t host/save it to the website server. I’d prefer it if the image's Wikimedia URL is used. This means that if I update an image, it will be updated on the site as well. Thanks.

References