Re: Brazilian Spinosaur: more info

["Ray Stanford" <dinotracker@earthlink.net>]

    Ben Creisler quoted, from a press report on a Brazilian spinosaurid,
"...[the Spinosaurid] could cruise the shallows of
lakes for fish, balanced on its two feet. But it would not venture further
into the depths as it could not swim."

    All modern vertebrates of which I have any knowledge can swim, at least
beyond the recently-born stage, and I suspect the same may have been true of
Mesozoic vertebrates.  If whomever originated that "could not swim"
statement were swimming in 40-foot water and such a Spinosaurid, hungry and
hunting, were wading in shallower water nearby and having no luck, I suspect
he or she would 'haul it' to the other side of the river mighty rapidly, not
venturing a test of the statement. I'm not implying that a spinosaurid would
not prefer to stand in shallow water and try for a meal, but I surely would
not want to personally test the "could not swim" assertion.

    If I'm too far out in 'left field' in feeling this way, please correct
me.  Meantime, never smile at the dino who (to paraphrase Paul C. Sereno)
seems trying like heck to be a corcodile, wading nearby.  :)

    Ray Stanford




Azevedo said the animal they are looking for could have
been one of the biggest carnivorous dinosaurs to have
walked the earth, measuring about 13 meters (43 feet) long
and 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) high. It weighed about three
tonnes.
The expedition to gather more fossil evidence on Brazil's
own spinosaurs will begin in January of next year, Azevedo
said. The 1.5 million dollars needed to fund the
expedition to northeast Brazil will be raised from the
private sector.