Re: Regarding Spinosaurus

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fam Jansma" <fam.jansma@worldonline.nl>

> The sail on the back of Spinosaurus could be clue to the coolbloodiness of
> this critter.

Hm. Like all other theropods, it looks like a runner, OK, its relatives like
*Suchomimus* and *Baryonyx* do. The latter have long, vertical legs and
permanently bent knees. Many other dinosaurs were so big that they must have
been warm-blooded (look for Paul & Leahy 1994 and Paul 1998 in the
archives), I can't see how it could have been cold-blooded.

> Look at present reptiles, they need to warm themselves in the
> morning to "activate" themselves in the morning and because of their
> colbloodiness, they need less food. A sail would surely have speeded up
the
> process so the Spinosaurus was able to hunt fish in the morning.

We don't know if it ever got cold there. Some have dubbed a "supertropical
climate" what the place must have experienced. I'd say the sail was just for
showing off or maybe, like elephant ears, for cooling.