Baryonyx

Baryonyx, meaning "heavy claw", was a large theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now modern day England and Spain during the early Cretaceous Period about 130-125mya, even though some bone fragments such as claws and jaws have been found in Portugal and West Frica. It is the largest ever carnivorous dinosaur discovered in Europe to date. It was first discovered in January 1983 by William Walker. An amuture 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 huge, almost the size of T-Rex, one of the largest theropods ever to have lived. It lived near the rivers where it hunted alone.Until the discovery of Suchomimus, a close relation of Baryonyx, it was the only known piscivorous (fish-eating) dinosaur.

Fact File

Height = 4-5 metres  

Length = 12 metres

Weight = 2-3 tonnes

Diet = Piscivorous

Prey

Baryonyx was a carnivore, and was almost as large as T-Rex. Because of this it needed 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.

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