Dino card No. 1714 of 2,015

Suchomimus

Say it: SOO-koh-MIME-us

Name means: “crocodile mimic”1

Ate: FishSpinosaursEarly Cretaceous

Suchomimus was a big, fish-eating dinosaur that looked a bit like a crocodile. It had a long, narrow snout full of cone-shaped teeth and a huge claw on each thumb.1

Lived

121 to 100 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Niger, in the Ténéré Desert1 2

Food

Fish1

Length

11 m2

Artist's life restoration of Suchomimus — How Suchomimus may have looked, by Fred Wierum. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Scientists still argue about colours and details.

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

Suchomimus had a low sail on its back, made from long spines on its vertebrae.1

Its thumb claws were huge and curved, possibly used to hook fish or dig.1

Suchomimus lived about 112 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period.1 2

The first fossils were found in 1997 by a team led by Paul Sereno, and the dinosaur was named in 1998.1

Some scientists think Suchomimus might be the same as another spinosaur called Baryonyx, but most now treat them as separate.1

Suchomimus had hollow bones, which helped it hunt in shallow water without sinking.1

Myth buster

Myth: Some people think Suchomimus could swim underwater like Spinosaurus.

Truth: Science shows Suchomimus had hollow bones and was adapted for shallow water, not for diving deep like Spinosaurus or Baryonyx.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Suchomimus
Named by: Sereno et al. 19983
Group: Spinosaurs
Family / clade: Spinosauridae3
Classification: Theropoda > Spinosauridae3
Age of the rocks: 121 to 100 million years (Aptian to Albian)3
Rock formations: Elrhaz3
Countries: Niger3
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Suchomimus was discovered in 1997 by a team led by American paleontologist Paul Sereno in the Ténéré Desert of Niger. It was named and described in 1998.1
Still debated: Scientists still debate whether Suchomimus is really a separate genus from Baryonyx or if it should be called Baryonyx tenerensis.1

Where the facts come from

Suchomimus (en.wikipedia.org)
Suchomimus | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
Suchomimus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@dinowiki.app and we will fix it.