page_title: Suchomimus
section_title: Palaeoecology
hierarchical_section_title: Suchomimus / Palaeoecology
caption_attribution_description: English: Restoration of a Nigersaurus herd and two fishing spinosaurs in the Early Cretaceous Erlhaz Formation.
context_page_description: Suchomimus is a genus of spinosaurid dinosaur that lived between 125 and 112 million years ago in what is now Niger, during the Aptian to early Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous period. The animal was named and described by palaeontologist Paul Sereno and colleagues in 1998, based on a partial skeleton from the Erlhaz Formation. Suchomimus's long and shallow skull, similar to that of a crocodile, earns it its generic name, while the specific name Suchomimus tenerensis alludes to the locality of its first remains, the Ténéré Desert.
  Suchomimus was 9.5 to 11 metres long and weighed between 2.5 to 5.2 tonnes, although the holotype specimen may not have been fully grown. Suchomimus's narrow skull was perched on a short neck, and its forelimbs were powerfully built, bearing a giant claw on each thumb. Along the midline of the animal's back ran a low dorsal sail, built from the long neural spines of its vertebrae. Like other spinosaurids, it likely had a diet of fish and small prey animals.
  Some palaeontologists consider the animal to be an African species of the European spinosaurid Baryonyx, B. tenerensis.
context_section_description: The Elrhaz Formation, part of the Tegama Group, consists mainly of fluvial sandstones with low relief, much of which is obscured by sand dunes. The sediments are coarse- to medium-grained, with almost no fine-grained horizons. Suchomimus lived in what is now Niger, during the late Aptian to early Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous, 112 million years ago. The sediment layers of the formation have been interpreted as an inland habitat of extensive freshwater floodplains and fast-moving rivers, with a tropical climate that likely experienced seasonal dry periods.
  This environment was home to a variety of fauna including dinosaurs, pterosaurs, turtles, fish, hybodont sharks, and freshwater bivalves. Suchomimus coexisted with other theropods like the abelisaurid Kryptops palaios, the carcharodontosaurid Eocarcharia dinops, and an unknown noasaurid. Herbivorous dinosaurs of the region included iguanodontians like Ouranosaurus nigeriensis, Elrhazosaurus nigeriensis, Lurdusaurus arenatus, and two sauropods: Nigersaurus taqueti, and an unnamed titanosaur. Crocodylomorphs were abundant; represented by the giant pholidosaur species Sarcosuchus imperator, as well as small notosuchians like Anatosuchus minor, Araripesuchus wegeneri, and Stolokrosuchus lapparenti. The local flora probably consisted mainly of ferns, horsetails, and angiosperms, based on the dietary adaptations of the large diplodocoids that lived there.
caption: Restoration of Suchomimus and the sauropods Nigersaurus in the environment of the Elrhaz Formation
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