Re: Suchomimus vs Baryonyx: Dare to Compare

[Betty Cunningham <bettyc@flyinggoat.com>]

Has anyone identified any fresh water ichthyosaurs, mososaurs, or
plesiosaurs from the same areas?
Maybe it ate the youngsters of these as well as fish, the occasional
duck, etc...

-Betty Cunningham

M.Alan Kazlev wrote:
> yes, the crocodile analogy sounds more logical - crocodiles of course
> grew to spinosaur size.  However the metabolism is different - crocs are
> ectotherms, whereas spinosaurs like other theropods would have probably
> been quasi-endothermic adults (and fully endothermic during the rapid
> growth phase when young).
> 
> In fact, all crocodile anologues - phytosaurs, champsosaurs,
> cochleosaurs, eryopids, etc were *all* ectothermic
> 
> > Lets examine this. We have to play the picture all the way through.
> > Sure
> > it has a skull that looks similar to that of a ghavial. But the
> > nostrals
> > are still on the side of the skull and not the top,
> 
> which *does* seem to mitigate against a semi-aquatic life-style
> 
> > so it didn't float like a ghavial. It couldn't swim like a ghavial.
> > The whole body
> > ungulates, not just the tail. So we rule out swimming to catch a fish
> > (it would have to have been a deep river, lake, to begin with). So it
> > stood up to it's belly in a river. The rivers bottom would have to
> > have
> > been hard or it would have sunk into the mud. IT would have to have
> > fast
> > reflexes to catch the fish. The water would have to have been clear
> > for
> > it to see the fish. A 6 foot fish swiming in 6 feet of water is
> > awfully
> > shallow for it. The biggest fish usually are at the deepest part of
> > the
> > lake/river.
> >
> > So I say no fish eater. What did it eat then? Terrestrial animals of
> > course.
> 
> *but* then why the elongated snout and conical (fish-eater) teeth?The
> whole beast is an enigma!