Irritator
IH-rih-tay-tor
- Wetlands
The Irritator is a therapod spinosaurid dinosaur from South America. With long, large teeth and a weak but quick bite, along with the paleoecology of the region the Irritator lived in, this dinosaur probably had a primarily piscivore diet.
Discovery
An almost-complete skull of the Irritator was found in the Santana Formation of Brazil. Dating from the lower Cretaceous and being one of the few dinosaur fossils found in this region, the Irritator gained its name from the irritation felt by the authors who described the dinosaur when they realised the skull had been artificially reconstructed by the commercial fossil diggers who sold it to them.
Palaeoecology
The Irritator lived during the early Cretaceous, around 110 million years ago. The Brazilian Santana Formation where the fossil was found is rich in fish and crocodyliform remains, which probably served as the Irritator’s main food source. The terrestrial environment of the time was arid to semi-arid, and there were shallow marine and coastal lagoon areas.
Information
- Era
- Early Cretaceous
- Family
- Spinosauridae
- Genus
- Irritator
- Height
- 2.1M
- Length
- 8M
- Weight
- 1T
- Diet
- Piscivore, Carnivore, Live Prey
- Egg batch size
- 1 - 2
