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Suchomimus Tenerensis 1:40 Scale 
 
Suchomimus tenerensis

Pronounced: Sue-koe-My-mus Diet: Carnivore (Meat-Eater) Name Means: "Crocodile Mimic" Length: 40 feet (13 m) Height: 16 feet (5 m) Weight: 6 tons (6,000 kilos) Time: Middle Cretaceous - 100 MYA

I took a Chap Mei Suchomimus action figure and turned it into a 1:40 scale Suchomimus model.

This was fairly involved as it entailed lengthening the tail, shortening the arms/fingers, building on the large thumb claw, widening the body, realigning the legs closer to the body, and - finally - cutting the teeth out with an exacto-knife and replacing them with the teeth from a Dinotales Ceratosaurus Skull model. The usual tools/putty were used.

Suchomimus was very similar to Spinosaurus, but it didn't have the tall sail on its back. Along with its cousin, Suchomimus ate mostly fish, which it caught with its long, thin snout full of sharp, cone-shaped teeth. It was discovered in 1998 and has given scientists a much clearer picture of this fish-eating family of dinosaurs, which also includes Baryonyx.

The discovery of Suchomimus has helped both scientists and the general public understand the rich diversity of life that lived in Africa millions of years ago. It has also provided scientists with valuable clues about the migration of the spinosaurs from Europe into Africa. Although it did not have nearly as prominent a sail as Spinosaurus, Suchomimus did have sacral vertebrae that supported a two-foot (.7 m) sail on its back. Some scientists are questioning whether this dinosaur is a unique genus or if it might be a species of Baryonyx.