Baryonyx
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| Baryonyx Fossil range: Early Cretaceous |
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 Baryonyx
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Baryonyx (pronounced /ˌbæriːˈɒnɪks/ meaning "heavy claw", referring to its large claw (Greek barus meaning 'heavy' and onyx meaning 'claw' or 'nail') was a carnivorous dinosaur discovered in clay pits just south of Dorking, England, and northern Spain. The major part of the skeleton of a juvenile specimen was found in England, while the Spanish fossils consist mainly of a partial skull and some fossil tracks. It has been dated to the Barremian period of Early Cretaceous Period, around 125 million years ago.
Baryonyx is one of the few known piscivorous (fish-eating) dinosaurs, with specialized adaptions like a long low snout with narrow jaws filled with finely serrated teeth and gaffe hook-like claws to help it hunt its main prey.
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[edit] Description
Baryonyx was about 8 to 12 m (26 to 40 ft) long, and around 3.6 m (12 ft) tall and probably weighed in the region of 2,000 kg. However, analysis of the bones suggests that the most complete specimen was not yet fully grown, so Baryonyx may have grown even larger.
Baryonyx had a large claw on the thumb of each hand, which measured at about 35 cm (14 in). Its long neck was not as strongly S-curved as in many other theropods. The skull was set at an acute angle, not the 90° angle common in similar dinosaurs. The long jaw was distinctly crocodilian, and had 96 teeth, twice as many as its relatives. Sixty-four of the teeth were placed in the lower jaw (mandible), and 32 large ones in the upper (maxilla). The snout probably bore a small crest. The upper jaw had a sharp angle near the snout, a feature seen in crocodiles that helps to prevent prey from escaping. A similar feature is also seen in shrikes.
[edit] Discovery and naming
During the early Cretaceous, Wealden Lake covered the majority of what is now northern Europe. Alluvial plains and deltas spread from the uplands surrounding the area where London now stands and eventually ran into this great lake.
Baryonyx was discovered in these former deltas. In January 1983, an amateur fossil hunter named William Walker came across an enormous claw sticking out the side of a clay pit, Smokejacks Pit at Wallis Wood, Ockley near Dorking in Surrey. He received some help in retrieving the claw and several other fossil bones from the site. Subsequently he contacted the Natural History Museum in London about his find.
The skeleton was fortunately found to be in a relatively intact state and was excavated by a team led by Alan J. Charig and Angela C. Milner of the Natural History Museum. They published their description of the type species, B. walkeri, in 1986, and named it after Walker. The skeleton can now be seen mounted at the Natural History Museum in London. About 70% of the skeleton was recovered including the skull, enabling paleontologists to make numerous deductions about Baryonyx from just the single specimen.
Some years after the discovery in England, a partial skull of Baryonyx was found in the Sala de los Infantes deposit of Burgos Province, Spain. Some of the famous and abundant dinosaur fossil tracks of La Rioja, near Burgos, have been identified as tracks of Baryonyx or other theropod genus, very similar to it. Two more claws have been found in the Niger Republic in West Africa, and another in 1996 on the Isle of Wight. In December 1997, a store of old fossils in the Isle of Wight Museum yielded a forearm of a Baryonyx. These remains had apparently been unearthed decades earlier on the southwest coast of the island, and had sat unclassified in a box in Carisbrooke Castle since that time.
[edit] Classification
Another crocodile-like fish-eater, Suchomimus, was described in 1998, and placed together with Baryonyx in the subfamily Baryonychinae.[1] The Baryonychinae is a subdivision of the family Spinosauridae, which contains other giant Cretaceous forms from Africa and South America, including the genera Spinosaurus and Irritator. It is possible that spinosaurids appeared in the ancient austral continent of Gondwana and had its major diversification in Africa, colonizing Western Europe through the Iberian Peninsula later.[citation needed]
In 2004, paleontologists Hutt and suggested that Suchomimus tenerensis should be redefined as Baryonyx tenerensis due new discoveries that showed the vertebrae of Baryonyx were more similar to those of Suchomimus than previously thought.[2] There is also a similarity to the tetanuran Becklespinax, but there is no evidence that Baryonyx had similar elongated spines on the back of its neck.[citation needed]
[edit] Paleoecology
The crocodile-like jaws and large number of finely serrated teeth suggested to scientists that Baryonyx was a fish-eater. As confirmation, a number of scales and bones from the fish Lepidotes were also discovered in the body cavity of the English specimen.
It is speculated that Baryonyx would sit on a riverbank, resting on its powerful front legs, and then sweep fish from the river with its powerful striking claw. This is similar to the modern grizzly bear. The long but low stance and angled head support this theory.
Until the discovery of the closely-related Suchomimus, Baryonyx was the only known piscivorous (fish-eating) dinosaur. On the other hand, bones of an Iguanodon were also found in association with the Baryonyx skeleton. Although not definitive proof, it seems possible that Baryonyx scavenged any extra meat it could find.
the shape of the jaw of baryonyx has a charactaristic S shape which helped hold fish, however it might have also been suited to grabbing the neck of herbivorous dinosaurs which it may have hunted
[edit] References
- ^ Sereno, Beck, Dutheil, Gado, Larsson, Lyon, Marcot, Rauhut, Sadleir, Sidor, Varricchio, Wilson and Wilson. (1998). "A Long-Snouted Predatory Dinosaur from Africa and the Evolution of the Spinosaurids." Science, 282(5392): 1298–1302.
- ^ Hutt, S. and Newbery, P. (2004). "A new look at Baryonyx walkeri (Charig and Milner, 1986) based upon a recent fossil find from the Wealden." Symposium of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy. (online abstract).
- Paul Barrett and José Luis Sanz. "Larousse de los Dinosaurios", Larousse, 2000.
- Benton MJ, Spencer PS (1995). Fossil Reptiles of Great Britain. Chapman & Hall. ISBN 0-412-62040-5.
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