Name meaning: "Heavy Claw"
Length: 10 meters (32 feet)
Weight: 1.7 ton
Baryonyx is a Spinosaur, a member of the same group as the northern African dinosaurs Spinosaurus and Suchomimus. Baryonyx was smaller than these relatives but was still a big predator. It was 10 meters (33 feet) long and 2.5 meters (8 feet) high at the hips. It had a long, narrow snout filled with teeth that were cone-shaped - a real difference from the blade-shaped teeth of typical meat-eating dinosaurs.
Because of the shape of its snout and teeth (both of which are similar to those of modern crocodiles and alligators), some paleontologists think that Baryonyx ate lots of fish. Others, however, think it ate other dinosaurs. In fact, both ideas are supported by the original Baryonyx specimen from Surry. In the guts of this dinosaur, palaeontologists found the partially digested scales of large fish as well as the partially digested bones of a young Iguanodon. This strongly supports the idea that Baryonyx ate both fish and dinosaurs. However the concept of Baryonyx suitable to diet of eating other dinosaurs is only suggested that it fed off the carrion, implying it was a scavenger to some extent.
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