Introduction Suchosaurus was a dinosaur which meat-eating dinosaur. They lived in Europe a long time ago during the Early Cretaceous period.
Suchosaurus was named in 1814, the oldest dinosaur named 'crocodile lizard. Which makes sense because scientists confused it. A crocodile for almost 200 years.
Scientists call it 'Dubious genus', which means we are honestly not 100% sure about what this creature actually is.
Where were the fossils actually found? Tilgate Forest in Sussex, England, where the first fossils of this dinosaur, some old teeth and bones, were discovered.
A very famous scientist named Richard Owen, he studied all these fossils in 1814. Then, officially describe the first species,s which was named S. cultridens.
But, But, But... Here is the interesting twist!!! A completely disorganized means teeth and bones from different creatures were all mixed together, and by mistake, studied as if they belonged to just one single animal! Scientists call them: Chimeric assemblage.
Then, later in 1897, Henri Emile Sauvage from French(scientist, discovered some more fossils.
One tooth and some broken jaw pieces from a place named the Papo Seco Formation in Portugal. Then, he studied carefully and said that this was a second species w, which we can call S. girardi. Now, this dinosaur officially had two species. One was found in England and another in Portugal.
The biggest blunder in all of dinosaur science history!! At this part where personally feel very bad for poor Suchosaurus.
When these fossils were discovered way back in the 1800s.
Scientists carefully studied the teeth and concluded that this must definitely be a crocodile, and this mistake just kept getting repeated again and again for 200 years.
And,
Nobody questioned that every new scientist just trusted the previous scientist and moved on!!
It is like writing a completely wrong answer and all your classmates copying it without any recheck...
And, In 2013, Someone Actually Got It!
After around 200 years of this ongoing confusion, Angela Milner (scientist).
Came in 2003 and carefully studied all the available fossils. Then, they officially said that 'listen everyone, this is absolutely not a crocodile. This creature is actually a spinosaurid dinosaur!'
Now, the question is, what is a spinosaurid?
It is your family of dinosaur the very same family that includes the incredibly famous spinosaurid, that massive dinosaur which actually defends the T. Rexx in Jurassic Park 3!
And that was very interesting because he was a relative of a spinosaurid, but we called it a crocodile for 200 million years.
ANGELA MILNER gives one more interesting thing! He said that Suchosaurus is actually the exact same dinosaur as Baryonyx. It is also known as a spinosaurid dinosaur. And in scientist they have a special term for this called 'senior synonym'.
The name was officially given first, which will be consider that correct and proper name going forward.
And, we know that Suchosaurus was named earlier than Baryonyx. It would be the one with the winning name.
The account number of the scientist agreed with her and supported it for several years after that.
But, in 2011, Everything Got Complicated Again! When things getting settle on good way... Then in 2011, Octávio Mateus, a scientist, came with his full research team and said that, wait a little,e everyone, war nwas notabout all of this. According to the tests available are vague and non-diagnostic. Meaning so ordinary, unclear, and unspecific. That you drew strong conclusions from them at all.
Think of it this way:
If someone randomly gives you a single hair and asks to identify exactly which person it belongs to, without any DNA test or any other evidence, that is exactly the situation here!!
From only fossils, we cannot get that much clear and detailed information about anything. So, they went ahead and officially declared Suchosaurus as a 'Dubious genus'.
NOW THE ABSOLUTE BEST FUN FACT ABOUT EVERYTHING!!! So, this is what is the coolest and mind-blowing of the entire story. Suchosaurus was officially named and described in 1841 by Richard Owen. Now, here is the crazy part: the same Richard Owen introduced the word 'Dinosauria', meaning the word dinosaur itself. In 1842, which is one year later!
So, Suchosaurus officially got it names before the word dinosaur even existed in the English language.
SIZE AND BODY Suchosaurus was absolutely heavy; it could be anywhere from 8.3 to 10 meters long. Its weight is at least one tonne.
TEETH: the main cluster.e The most important fossils we have of Suchosaurus are actually its teeth. These are slightly curved and cone-shaped.
Also, one species had smooth teeth with no sharp edges.
DIET Scientist believe Suchosaurus was mostly a fish-eater,r that call a piscivorous diet.
CLASSIFICATION
Suchosaurus belongs to a dinosaur family called spinosaurids. Shares many features with simidinosaursurus like Baryonyx and Suchomimus.
HABITAT
It lived near rivers and floodplain sharing its environment with pterosaurs, crocodiles, turtles, and various fish.
