Piscivorous spinosaurs; were they herons or gharials?

[archosaur@usa.net]

I was wondering if anyone could inform me about any recent work on the neck
curvature of spinosaurids and how it would effect feeding behaviour.

_Baryonyx_ and _Spinosaurus_ were considered to have a very weak 'S' curve in
the neck. Now if they were to snap fish up like modern day herons, would one
not expect them to have a stronger 'S' curve than what the anatomy seems (or
seemed in the event recent studies changed things) to suggest? 

This question goes out particularly to _Suchomimus tenerensis_ (mostly since
this is the only spinosaur with a snout that seems to suggest a diet of fish
and only fish). I am unaware of any morphological work which determined the
"strength" of the 'S' curve in this animal. 

Now if it didn't have a tightly coiled neck, then should we expect a more
gharial type approach to fishing? 

Perhaps fast swipes through rapid rivers, or maybe just hanging out in a river
or lake with the mouth held underwater waiting for a fish to swim into those
"gently smiling jaws" :).

On a side note, does anyone know of any videos or pictures showing how
gharials go about catching fish?

Jura


Jurassosaurus's Reptipage: A page devoted to the study of the reptilia:

http://reptilis.webjump.com

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