Spinosaurus, a Sail-back Dinosaur

Spinosaurus, a Sail-back Dinosaur

Spinosaurus, a Sail-back Dinosaur

A Short Reader

Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 3 to 5
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	3.66

Vocabulary

challenging words:

mates, bony, backbone, spiny, crocodile, means, several, giant, lizard, lived, arms, northern, toward, along, short, kinds

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Spinosaurus, a Sail-back Dinosaur
By Cindy Grigg

¹     Spinosaurus (spy no SORE uss) means "spiny lizard." This dinosaur had a row of tall bones or spines that stuck up along its backbone. The bony spines were covered with a sheet of skin. It looked like a sail on the dinosaur's back. Its sail was six feet tall! Several kinds of dinosaurs had sails. Spinosaurus was the largest of them all.

²     The sail may have helped these kinds of dinosaurs use the sun to keep warm. On cold days, maybe the Spinosaurus turned the sail toward the sun. The sun would warm the dinosaur's blood in the sail. On hot days, it could cool its body by moving into the shade. It could have been used to attract mates, like the brightly colored feathers of today's birds. Some scientists even think that the sail may have been like a camel's hump and was filled with stored fat.

³     Spinosaurus was a giant meat eater. It ate fish. It may have eaten other .....
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