Study: Dinosaur had crocodile-like skull

Published: Jan. 14, 2008 at 9:18 AM

BRISTOL, England, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- British scientists using computer modeling techniques determined an unusual fish-eating dinosaur -- the Baryonyx -- had a crocodile-like skull.

Emily Rayfield of the University of Bristol said the Baryonyx had a skull that functioned like a fish-eating crocodile, despite looking like a dinosaur. It also possessed two huge hand claws, perhaps used as grappling hooks to lift fish from the water.

Rayfield utilized computer modeling techniques commonly used to discover how a car's hood buckles during a crash to determine that while Baryonyx was eating, its skull bent and stretched in the same way as the skull of the Indian fish-eating gharial -- a crocodile with long, narrow jaws.

Baryonyx walkeri is an early Cretaceous dinosaur, approximately 125 million years old, belonging to a family called spinosaurs.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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