PALEONTOLOGY:Spinosaurs as Crocodile Mimics

doi:10.1126/science.282.5392.1276

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PALEONTOLOGY:
Spinosaurs as Crocodile Mimics

Thomas R. Holtz Jr.

The dinosaurs called theropods--a group that includes allosaurs and velociraptors--have been in the news lately because of their role in the debate over the origins of birds and avian flight. But there is much more to the theropod story, as Holtz discusses in his Perspective. Sereno et al. report in the same issue the discovery of a new variety of spinosaur, a type of theropod, whose skull has features very similar to those of crocodiles. With an elongated snout and conical teeth, this spinosaur may have been adapted for eating fish, rather than dining on terrestrial animals.

The author is in the Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. E-mail: tholtz{at}geol.umd.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:

Theropod Locomotion.: J. O. Farlow, S. M. Gatesy, T. R. Holtz Jr., J. R. Hutchinson, and J. M. Robinson (2000)
Integr. Comp. Biol. 40, 640-663
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