Largest carnivorous dinosaur

The largest carnivorous dinosaur, and possibly the largest ever land-based predator ever known, is the Spinosaurus. New examinations of skull fragments (originally unearthed in Morocco) suggest that the a 99-cm long Spinosaurus snout came from a skull measuring 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) long. Based on this, Cristiano Dal Sasso and colleagues of the Civic Natural History Museum in Milan, Italy calculated that the Spinosaurus measured 17 m (56 ft) long and weighed 7-9 tonnes (15,400 - 19,800 lb). This means the Spinosaurus was 4 m (14 ft) and 3.3 m (11 ft) longer than fellow therapods, Tyrannosaurus Rex and Gigantosaurus, respectively. The Spinosaurus roamed present-day Sahara, 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous period and fossil evidence suggests its main diet consisted of fish, as opposed to other dinosaurs. The Spinosaurus is usually recognisable by its 'sail',a series of 1-m (6-ft) long spines covered by skin on its back, thought to be used either as a cooling mechanism or to attract mates. The New Scientist published its article on this in February 2006.