Baryonyx

Baryonyx (meaning "heavy claw", referring to its large claw) is a genus of carnivorous dinosaur first discovered in clay pits just south of Dorking, England, and later reported from fossils found in northern Spain and Portugal. It contains one species, Baryonyx walkeri. Its fossils have been recovered from formations dating from the Hauterivian to early Barremian stages of the early Cretaceous Period, around 130-125 million years ago.



Baryonyx is one of the few known piscivorous (fish-eating) dinosaurs, with specialized adaptions like a long low snout with narrow jaws filled with finely serrated teeth and gaffe hook-like claws to help it hunt its main prey.

Description
Baryonyx was about 8.5 m (28 ft) long and weighed in the region of 1,700 kg.[3] However, analysis of the bones suggests that the most complete specimen was not yet fully grown, so Baryonyx may have grown even larger.

Baryonyx had a large claw on the thumb of each hand, which measured at about 35 cm (14 in). Its long neck was not as strongly S-curved as in many other theropods. The skull was set at an acute angle, not the 90° angle common in similar dinosaurs. The long jaw was distinctly crocodilian, and had 96 teeth, twice as many as its relatives. Sixty-four of the teeth were placed in the lower jaw (mandible), and 32 large ones in the upper (maxilla). The snout probably bore a small crest. The upper jaw had a sharp angle near the snout, a feature seen in crocodiles that helps to prevent prey from escaping. A similar feature is also seen in shrikes.

Discovery and naming
During the early Cretaceous, Wealden Lake covered the majority of what is now northern Europe. Alluvial plains and deltas spread from the uplands surrounding the area where London now stands and eventually ran into this great lake.

Baryonyx was discovered in these former deltas. In January 1983, an amateur fossil hunter named William Walker came across an enormous claw sticking out the side of a clay pit, Smokejacks Pit at Wallis Wood, Ockley near Dorking in Surrey. He received some help in retrieving the claw and several other fossil bones from the site. Subsequently he contacted the Natural History Museum in London about his find.

The skeleton was fortunately found to be in a relatively intact state and was excavated by a team led by Alan J. Charig and Angela C. Milner of the Natural History Museum. They published their description of the type species, B. walkeri, in 1986, and named it after Walker. The skeleton can now be seen mounted at the Natural History Museum in London. About 70% of the skeleton was recovered including the skull, enabling paleontologists to make numerous deductions about Baryonyx from just this first specimen.

Some years after the initial discovery in England, a partial skull of Baryonyx was found in the Sala de los Infantes deposit of Burgos Province, Spain. Some of the famous and abundant dinosaur fossil tracks of La Rioja, near Burgos, have been identified as tracks of Baryonyx or other theropod genus, very similar to it. Two more claws have been found in the Niger Republic in West Africa, and another in 1996 on the Isle of Wight. In December 1997, a store of old fossils in the Isle of Wight Museum yielded a forearm of a Baryonyx. These remains had apparently been unearthed decades earlier on the southwest coast of the island, and had sat unclassified in a box in Carisbrooke Castle since that time.

Jaw fragments and teeth from Portugal, originally thought to belong to Suchosaurus girardi, were later identified as Baryonyx walkeri by paleontologist Eric Buffetaut.