Baryonyx was a very unusual carnivorous (meat eating) dinosaur that lived during the early part of the Cretaceous period, colse to about 125 million years ago. The very first fossil of the animal was founding by William Walker in 1983 in clay pit near Dorking in Surrey, England - Walker spotted a large claw sticking out the side of the pit. The fossil that he had found included about 70% of the bones of the animal, along with the skull, and also contained the remains of Baryonyx's last meal inside its rib cage - fish. Subsequently, supplementary fossils of Barynonyx have also been found in Spain.
Baryoynx was about 20 feet (6.1 meters) long and weighed something in the region of 2 tons. It had a very narrow crocodile-like skull with many small pointed teeth, and a bend in the jaw which would have been useful to stop prey from escaping (crocodile skulls have a similar feature). Unusually for a theropod dinosaur, Baryonyx had a flexible neck, and additionally its skull was attached to the neck in a distinct manner from other theropods too - at an acute angle, rather than the usual 90 degree angle The oddest feature is however a huge curved claw that was about 1 foot (30 centimeters) long. It is from this claw that Baryonyx gets its name - "Baryonyx" means "heavy claw". Scientists have speculated that it may have used the claw used to hook fish out of water when hunting - although it is not current known whether this claw was attached to Baryonyx's front or rear feet.
