Spinosaurus Tooth

Kem Kem Beds, Morocco

Mid Cretaceous (100 - 94 Million Years Old)

Spinosaurus was first discovered in 1912 by a palaeontologist named Ernst Stromer. Despite having been discovered over 100 years ago, it's only in recent decades that we've began to gain a true understanding of this fascinating dinosaur.

Spinosaurus was a theropod dinosaur and one of the largest known land predators to ever exist. Measuring up to 14 meters (46ft) in length, it had a large sail on its back and a long snout with straight, conical teeth. It lived around 94 - 100 million years ago in what is now modern day North Africa, which at that time was dominated by mangrove forests and vast river systems leading out to the Tethys Sea (an ancient sea which existed between 250 and 50 million years ago, before the evolution of the indian ocean).

Spinosaurus was one of the few dinosaurs to be semi-aquatic and its diet consisted mainly of fish, although it was likely an opportunistic predator and there is evidence to suggest it also fed on other small to medium sized animals such as pterosaurs and baby dinosaurs. The extent to which it lived in the water is still up for debate, but it probably hunted for fish much like the modern day heron.

The Spinosaurus tooth you've scanned comes from the Kem Kem Beds of eastern Morocco. Spinosaurus teeth were long and conical, well adapted to puncturing the flesh of fish and flinging them from the water. Some of the fish which swam in the rivers and deltas which occupied this region during the mid-Cretaceous were absolute giants and included 25ft long sawfish and coelacanths the size of cars.  Spinosaurus teeth are some of the most common dinosaur fossils found in the Kem Kem Beds; many are from juveniles and measure just 1-2 inches, but the largest can have crowns measuring 5-6 inches.