Spinosaurus's Relatives... or Just Other Spinosaurids: Part Two (REUPLOAD

Spinosaurus's Relatives... or Just Other Spinosaurids: Part Two

Artwork By DuskyVel on Deviantart 

Last time we questioned the phylogeny of Spinosaurus, and also took a look at three odd specimens, MSNM V4047, FSAC-KK 11888 and the oddest, "Spinosaurus B". Today we're going to talk about some other Spinosaurids that usually go back and forth from being an independent genus to being a subspecies of Spinosaurus or Spinosaurus aegyptiacus itself. These creatures are the following: Oxalaia, S. maroccanus  an sigilmasaurus. Now why are these three creatures controversial? Simple: all we have of them are fragments, and these fragments are very similar to Spinosaurus. For example, below this text is a picture of most of the only remains of oxalaia: the tip of the jaw, the tooth sockets, and the premaxilla (cranial bone which is usually found at the tip of the reptilian snout); of course people will argue about whether something like this can be called a genus.

Sigilmassaurus isn't any better. All we have of it is few neck vertebrae. And to me it seems weird that it is only redirected to spinosaurus and not anythig else. I mean it is just neck vertebrae. How are we even sure it was a spinosauroid? 

The Holotype of Sigilmassaurus 

Now what about S.maroccanus? For those who don't know, S.maroccanus isn't a genus, but a subspecies of spinosaurus which lived in the Kem Kem formation in Morroco. I couldn't find much about its remains except an image of a supposed part of the maxila and the premaxila, which for the people who don't know are the tip of the jaw. Yes, I'm talking about the image under this text. If there wasn't that sign next to the fossil, I would have thought it was S.aegyptiacus.

But I also found something else. Something that made me dissapointed. So I was looking for remains of this supposed sub-species (which most likely is just S.aegyptiacus) and I found a vertebra labeled as of belonging to S.maroccanus being sold. Well, it was out of stock but believe me, If something is out of stock it was once in stock, meaning  this vertebra of such a questionable creature was identified by someone, and then, instead of going straigth to science, it went to some random person's hands. What a shame it is to lose stuff that could be  really useful to science that way.

Now we have taken a look at the three Spinosaurids that may just be S. aegyptiacus itself. Some of their fossils come from Morroco, some from Brazil. But the answer remains: are they separate animals or not? Well, to be honest with you , the only one of them that I believe is escaping the "black snake" (as they say in my country Greece) is Oxalaia. Sigilmassaurus is nothing more than a few vertebrae and S.maroccanus is obviously our beloved Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, which just moved into Morocco, which isn't that far from Egypt. But do you know a place that's a long way from Egypt? Brazil, the place where Oxalaia was found. So I think there's a better chance that Oxalaia is a valid genus than of Sigilmassaurus and S. maroccanus.

First Edition:10th Of January, 2023