The earliest material known was discovered in 1912 by Austrian paleontologist Richard Markgraf, then later described in more detail by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer. Spinosaurus may not be the most well known theropod, but it certainly has one of the most bizarre histories, both in its discovery and in its anatomy. On top of this, our interpretations of Spinosaurus’s anatomy, physiology, and ecology, all things that would influence its mass, have changed dramatically in the past 20 years, and are still undergoing debate and scrutiny as we speak. Estimates of its weight vary as wildly as 4.5 tons to nearly twenty. This makes the question of how much Spinosaurus weighed extremely difficult to pin down. Compared to the wealth and abundance of known T.rex specimens across almost every stage of its life history, we have comparatively very little in the way of Spinosaurus specimens, and fewer still with any degree of completeness. Yes, Spinosaurus was the longer and taller animal, but Tyrannosaurus rex was built like a mountain. Size comparisons of Spinosaurus, Giganotosaurus And Tyrannosaurus rex.Ī trickier question comes into play when we discuss mass however. In contrast T-Rex is estimated to have been 39-42 feet (12-13 meters) long, with a height of 11-13 feet (3-4 meters). Its huge spine puts the animal at an intimidating 20 feet (6.5 meters), though its head height, a more typical measurement point for a theropod’s height, is a shorter 12 feet (3 meters). With conservative estimates putting Spinosaurus’ length at approximately 50 feet (15 meters), and looser estimates putting it closer to 60 (18 meters). To put it bluntly, in terms of sheer length and height, Spinosaurus takes the crown handily. Even more recent discoveries, such as the unearthing of a partial skull in 2005, have given us a greater insight into the size of this creature. It was not until much more recently that more complete remains of related species such as Baryonyx gave us a more complete picture of the anatomy of this truly unusual theropod. This led scientists to erroneously identify it as a carnosaur more closely related to terrestrial species such as Allosaurus. Spinosaurus was discovered very shortly after Tyrannosaurus was first put on display, however the only known remains at the time were destroyed during World War II, and for years, the only data we had were its initial description, itself based on fragmentary remains. Now however, with the discovery of Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and most of all Spinosaurus, the gap doesn’t seem quite as large. Prior to that, there were few large theropods that even came close to matching the bulk and brawn of the tyrant lizard king. That is, until recently, when several large theropods cropped up in fossil finds over the past 3 decades. Tyrannosaurus rex has been known for nearly a century for, among other things, being the largest of the theropods, or meat-eating dinosaurs.
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