Protathlitis

MEANING: Champion

PERIOD: Early Cretaceous

CONTINENT: Europe

Protathlitis is the most basal member of the Baryonychinae yet discovered. It could grow to a length of 10-12 meters and was specialized for feeding in aquatic habitats. The discovery of Protathlitis helped to show that the Iberian Peninsula had a diversity of spinosaurids during the Early Cretaceous, and that they migrated south to Africa to further diversify.

Protathlitis is from the Early Cretaceous. The Cretaceous is the third and final geological period of the Mesozoic Era, with the Early Cretaceous making up roughly the first half, lasting from about 143 to 100 million years ago. The poles were ice-free, due to the relatively warm climate, and forests extended into high latitudes. The continued breakup of the continents created new coastlines and isolated landmasses, influencing the evolution of distinct dinosaur faunas.

It was a time of transition, as many groups of animals and plants began to take on more modern forms while others declined or disappeared. Pterosaurs continued to thrive, though early birds were becoming more diverse and widespread. Mammals remained small but adapted to a variety of ecological niches. In the oceans, ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs were common, and early mosasaurs began to appear.

Dinosaurs remained the dominant land animals, with groups like iguanodontians, spinosaurids, and carcharodontosaurids rising to prominence. While sauropods declined in some regions, they remained abundant in the Southern Hemisphere. The first true ceratopsians appeared, and ankylosaurs replaced stegosaurs in their niche. Dromaeosaurs and other small theropods diversified. During this time, the first flowering plants evolved, gradually changing global ecosystems by providing new food sources for herbivores.

Protathlitis is a spinosaurid. Spinosaurids are a group of large theropod dinosaurs, mainly from the Early Cretaceous. They are known for their crocodilian-like skulls with long narrow snouts. The tips of their upper and lower jaws fanned out into a spoon-shaped structure, with a notch in the upper jaw that the tip of the lower jaw fit into. The nostrils of spinosaurids were further back on the snout than in most other theropods. Adaptations such as these suggest that they were at least partially piscivorous, and likely led a semi-aquatic lifestyle.

Spinosaurids had bony crests on their heads along the midline of their skulls, and large arms, with three-fingered hands. In many species, the neural spines of the vertebrae were elongated and formed a sail-like structure on the animal's back, giving the group their name. The genus Spinosaurus, from which the clade gets its name, is the longest known terrestrial predator from the fossil record, with an estimated length of up to 14 m and body mass of up to 8 t.