Study: Dinosaur had crocodile-like skull

Briston, England -- British scientists using computer modeling techniques determined an unusual fish-eating dinosaur -- the Baryonyx -- had a crocodile-like skull.

Emily Rayfield of the University of Bristol said the Baryonyx had a skull that functioned like a fish-eating crocodile, despite looking like a dinosaur. It also possessed two huge hand claws, perhaps used as grappling hooks to lift fish from the water.

Rayfield utilized computer modeling techniques commonly used to discover how a car's hood buckles during a crash to determine that while Baryonyx was eating, its skull bent and stretched in the same way as the skull of the Indian fish-eating gharial -- a crocodile with long, narrow jaws.

Baryonyx walkeri is an early Cretaceous dinosaur, approximately 125 million years old, belonging to a family called spinosaurs.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.