Re: Spinosaurids, the Orca's on land?

["Steve Brusatte" <dinoland@lycos.com>]

On Sat, 01 Sep 2001 09:05:51  
 Daniel Bensen wrote:
>>>Spinosaurids have conical teeth, larger than Killer Whales, they to
>could rip up their meal (had to at some point, at least
>it?s larger meals). The teeth are more tightly packed and the largest
>teeth are at the front of the jaw as oppose to toward
>the middle in other theropods. Some thing to look into? Perhaps they
>ripped holes into sauropods?<<
>
>The shape of orca and spinosaur skulls are pretty different.  I'd expect
>orca jaws to be much more resistant to side-to-side stress than would
>the jaws of spinosaurs.

Well, from what I know of whale and spinosaur skulls, yeah, probably.  However, 
maybe spinosaurs were not ripping into sauropods with their teeth.  Perhaps 
they were using them to attack smaller prey...smaller ornithopods, maybe.  Or, 
perhaps, they used their conical teeth to rip into large fish.  I'm not one 
that believes that spinosaurs ate only fish, but it is possible that some 
spinosaurs did use their teeth to rip into the occasional large fish.  Or, 
perhaps, maybe fish did constitute the majority of the diet of some species.  I 
don't know, but it is a possibility...

Steve

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