Unusual fish-eating dinosaur had crocodile-like skull

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jimmy.shawl@googlemail.com - 15 Jan 2008 12:59 GMT

An unusual dinosaur has been shown to have a skull that functioned
like a fish-eating crocodile, despite looking like a dinosaur. It also
possessed two huge hand claws, perhaps used as grappling hooks to lift
fish from the water

http://www.theanalystmagazine.com/pr/6782630.htm

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John Harshman - 18 Jan 2008 17:42 GMT

> An unusual dinosaur has been shown to have a skull that functioned
> like a fish-eating crocodile, despite looking like a dinosaur. It also
> possessed two huge hand claws, perhaps used as grappling hooks to lift
> fish from the water
>
> http://www.theanalystmagazine.com/pr/6782630.htm

This is hardly a new claim. It's been made before about other
spinosaurs, e.g.

Holtz, T. R., Jr. 1998. Spinosaurs as crocodile mimics. Science
282:1276-1277.

Sereno, P. C., A. L. Beck, D. B. Dutheil, D. Gado, H. C. E. Larsson, G.
H. Lyon, J. D. Marcot, O. W. M. Rauhut, R. W. Sadleir, C. A. Sidor, D.
D. Varricchio, G. P. Wilson, and J. A. Wilson. 1998. A long-snouted
predatory dinosaur from Africa and the evolution of spinosaurids.
Science 282:1298-1302.

This is more evidence for that claim, though.

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Natural Science Forum / Biology / Paleontology / January 2008

Unusual fish-eating dinosaur had crocodile-like skull