Becklespinax
Pronounced:
beck-ell-Spy-nax
Diet:
Carnivore (meat-eater)
Name Means:
"Beckle's Spined"
Length:
26 ft. (8 m)
Height:
9 ft. (3 m)
Weight:
1 ton (900 kilos)
Time:
Early Cretaceous - 128 mya
Fossil remains for this Dinosaur have been
found in Europe
Becklespinax was a large meat eater from England that has caused much confusion among scientists. It was discovered way back in 1884 and has had several names since then. Unfortunately, very little of this dinosaur has been found, which only helps make things confusing. One thing that is known is that it had fairly tall spines on its back, which may have made it look like the North American dinosaur Acrocanthosaurus However, it is not thought that they were actually related.
An interesting story
associated with this dinosaur,
although it can't be proven, is
that Sir Richard Owen had the
tall neural spines of this
dinosaur when he was providing
direction to Waterhouse Hawkins
on how to design his sculptures.
The famous Crystal Palace
dinosaur sculptures, which still
stand today in London, include
what is known as the "Humpbacked
Megalosaurus". This humped
feature may be a result of
Owen's interpretation that these
neural spines belonged to
Megalosaurus as was
believed in an early assignment
of the specimen. |
