Baryonyx

Baryonyx, meaning "heavy claw", was a large theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now modern day England and Europe during the early and middle Cretaceous Period about 125-100mya, even though some bone fragments such as claws and jaws have been found in Portugal and West Africa. It is the largest ever carnivorous dinosaur discovered in Europe to date. It was first discovered in January 1983 by William Walker, hence the technical name of the species being baryonyx walkeri. An amateur fossil hunter, Walker found it when he saw a claw sticking out of a clay pit near Dorking in Surrey. This went on display at the natural History Museum it London, UK where it still is today.It was a fish-eating dinosaur with a huge 30cm claw on each hand and a distinctly crocodile-like mouth for holding the slippery fish and spike like teeth for tearing through flesh. It used this huge claw to hook fish out of the water or impale them before eating it. Baryonyx was a smaler relative to Spinosaurus. It lived near the rivers where it hunted alone.Until the discovery of Suchomimus and Spinosaurus. Baryonyx acted like a crocidile; occasionaly it would dive into the water to catch better fish. It could swim up to 30 mph. When a fish is caught, baryonyx will bring it to the shore an eat it.

Fact

Height = 2-4 (7-13ft)  

Length = 12 (37 ft)

Weight = 3 tonnes

Diet = Meat and Fish

Prey

Baryonyx was a carnivore, and was a  large piscivore.Because of this itneeded a lot of food. Its crocodile-like mouth was fiiled with its spike-like, straight teeth. It was perfectly adapted to handling slippery fish than tearing flesh like T-Rex's curved teeth were. It hunted alone, and spent most of its time in rivers catching fish with its vicious 30cm claw. it would lurk by the bank of a river, wait until it saw a fish then hooked it out with it's huge claw. This method is very similar to the hunting method of a modern day grizzly bear. Sometimes it would impale the fish with its claw rather then hook it out, but the fish ended up just as dead.

Piscivorous?

[1] Piscivorous is a posh name for a carnivore that eats fish. It comes from that Latin word piscis, meaning fish (obviously). Some animals eat only fish, whilst others eat fish alongside a few other things. For example, when you have a nice plate full of fish, then you are a piscivore. However, when that fish is alongside some chips, then you are not completely piscivorous. Understand now? Not a lot of land-dwelling dinosaurs were piscivorous. One of the most famous ones is Baryonx, another being Suchomimus.

Popular Culture

Baryonyx was going to appear in JPOG, but was scrapped, probably because Spinosaurus was a similar animal. However, by modding the Spinosaurus to have no sail, you can create a Baryonyx. It is also suspected that Rudy from Ice Age 3 is a Baryonyx. Baryonyx was also in the plans of being the major dinosaur in Jurassic Park 3. It was later replaced by Spinosaurus.

Rudy a albino baryonyx

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