Re: Armoured Spinosaurus?

["frogfoot" <frogfoot@ntlworld.com>]

The only large theropod I know about that had anything like armour is the
Carnotaurus.  I read the book for JP2 which had two of those creatures on,
and they somehow adapted a chameleon-type way of changing colour, shame they
didnt show that.

----- Original Message -----
From: "no go" <honkietong@hotmail.com>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 11:05 AM
Subject: Armoured Spinosaurus?


> Has there been any evidence of armoured Spinosaurids, particuarly
> Spinosaurus?
>
> I've been watching JP3, and despite the abysmal storyline and the almost
> obvious lack of effort in making the small monkeys look realistic (I have
no
> idea why people keep telling me they were intended to be humans), one
thing
> in the movie kept coming to me:
>
> The scene in question is when the T.rex grabs hold of the Spinosaurus on
the
> neck and drags it around for a few moments. This would have finished any
> dinosaur, but not good ol' Spino who manages to get off with barely a
> scratch and even manages to turn the tables.
>
> The strange thing is, Spinosaurus was up against the undisputed champion
of
> bite force, which could shatter Triceratops hipbones with its obscenely
> powerful 13,400 N bite. Considering that, it's pretty amazing that
> Spinosaurus could not only survive the bite to his looking much more
fragile
> then a hipbone neck, but with nary a scratch. Was Spinosaurus neck
armoured?
> Has there been any evidence for that? I know the movie monster theory
could
> be used up to explain this, but what on earth could Ingen mess with to
give
> Spinosaurus such amazing abilities? Is there any fossil evidence to
suggest
> an armoured Spinosaurus?
>
> Also, JP3 seems to tell us that Spinosaurus had an incredibly tough neck,
> despite having his multi-ton mass dragged in such a violent way, it did
not
> dislocate or break, nor even show significant signs of tissue damage. I
know
> we should speculate a little on dinosaurs, but was Spinosaurus really
> armoured and had a powerfully built neck or are the movie makers just
> yanking my crank in a really badly rigged fight? Can I put this down as
one
> of the all-too-many times when dinosaur movies suspend the laws of physics
> or is there really any justification for Spinosaurus rather amazing neck
> feats. Spino struck me as big and mean, but it was his indestructable neck
> that really got to me...
>
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