MONSTERS!!

With the new Godzilla movie getting a lot of attention in the media lately, I thought now would be a good time to take a look at some of the more fearsome dinosaurs.

Let's start with Spinosaurus Aegypticus, a large predatory theropod from the Cretaceous period.
As you may have guessed from it's name, this dinosaur lived in what is now Egypt, and across more of North Africa.
Spinosaurus was even larger than the more famous T-Rex, although whether the species was a voracious predator as it was depicted in Jurassic Park 3 or more of a fish-eater is still a matter of debate amongst palaeontologists. The structure of the  Spinosaur's teeth, and it's long snout (reminiscent of a crocodile) would suggest a fish-based diet, but it's physiology would suggest it was more than capable of hunting on land. and was more than likely a capable scavenger too.
The most striking feature of Spinosaurus is definitely the large spine "sail" on it's back, which may have been used for mating purposes or, more likely, as a means of temperature regulation, as a species of lizard this large would need a lot of thermal energy from the sun in order to function properly and a large sail would gather a lot of that energy efficiently.

                                                   Spinosaurus Skeleton (image courtesy of Wikipedia)
Another rather odd looking predatory species was Dilophosaurus (two-crested lizard), which some of you may recognise as the dino with a fancy frill around it's neck that spits venom at Nedry in Jurassic Park...Unfortunately this was the least accurate depiction of a species in that movie. The real Dilophosaurus was larger, up to 25ft in length and weighing half a ton. The real Dilophosaurus had no neck frill and was unable to spit venom at it's prey, although it was still an agile and fearsome predator.
The crests upon it's head were used mainly in attracting mates, rather than as weapons or as a means of temperature regulation.

                                             DIlophosaurus as seen in Jurassic Park (c) Universal Studios 
These gigantic monsters weren't just seen on land though...
In the prehistoric seas there were the predatory Mosasaurs, which weren't dinosaurs, but large aquatic lizards measuring up to 60ft in length,  larger than todays biggest shark, the filter feeding Whale Shark, and in fact bigger than many of the land based dinosaurs of the time (except Sauropods).

                                                  Mosasaurus skeleton (image courtesy of Wikipedia)
And in the skies there was the monstrously huge Quetzalcoatlus,named after the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl. This was, like the Mosasaur, not a dinosaur but a species of flying reptile with a reputed wingspan of up to 50ft, although between 30-40ft is much more likely. This still places Quetzalcoatlus at roughly the size of a small aircraft, and considerably larger than any modern flying animal. It is thought that Quetzalcoatlus was likely to be a scavenger/hunter, rather like storks and vultures of today, and as such it was capable of hunting on land, albeit in a rather ungainly fashion. .

                                                     Hunting Quetzalcoatlus (image courtesy of Wikipedia)
So whilst there were no dinosaur species capable of destroying downtown Tokyo, there were definitely true monsters once roaming the Earth.