Baryonyx vs. Tyrannosaurus

Now, it became known last week that the next JW movie is going to have a Baryonyx in it, and naturally, there are already discussions about it, is it going to fight the T-Rex, (Rexy) or what. There are also suggestions that it is something of a remastered rematch of a T-Rex vs. Spinosaurus fight back from the JP3 movie. Does this have any connotations?

Firstly, what is a Baryonyx, (or was). For a while, the popular opinion was that it is a cousin of Spinosaurus, and while that is true, the modern (2017) scientific P.O.V. states that Baryonyx was only a distant relative of Spinosaurus, not a close one, so its’ popular depiction – a smaller version of the Spinosaurus without the sail, but with extra-large claws on its’ ‘thumbs’, something similar to what the raptors had, but on its front legs, rather than the hind ones. It was also quite a bit smaller than the Spinosaurus was, (or the T-Rex) – whereas T-Rex was about 12 m long, and Spinosaurus – approximately 17, Baryonyx was about 7.5-10 m in length, and while people admit that it probably did get bigger than that, it wasn’t that much bigger, making it still smaller than the T-Rex was.

Okay, that is for measurements, how about the X-Factor? (Or whatever it was called on DW). Size issues aside, T-Rex was the better fighter than Spinosaurus was, when it came to intra-species fighting, and if we substitute Baryonyx for Spinosaurus, it is the same thing, except that Baryonyx was smaller and weaker than either T-Rex or Spinosaurus were, and would be overwhelmed by T-Rex and its’ bone-crushing bite all the quicker.

That is not to say that Baryonyx could not win. It could. While Tyrannosaurus’ jaws and teeth were designed to crush and tear, Baryonyx’s were designed to latch on and not let go, just as Spinosaurus’ teeth and jaws were. (Cousins!) Thus, if Baryonyx was able to grab and bite Tyrannosaurus, then regardless of how robust and strong the latter was, it would not be able to escape Baryonyx’s jaws without losing its pound of flesh – and meanwhile, Baryonyx would continue to hit its’ opponent with its’ powerful front legs that had those trademark claws – and if it scored a lucky critical hit on a Tyrannosaurus’ eye or a blood vein, then the ‘tyrant lizard king’ would be in serious trouble.

All that, but keep in mind that Baryonyx did not have Spinosaurus’ superior physical strength and bulk; with just one lucky bite Tyrannosaurus could break Baryonyx’s spine or even tear the smaller carnivore in two, even if Baryonyx would hurt it in the fight, however badly. It would be a clear winner, even if it probably would not want to tackle another Baryonyx anytime soon.

And here the reality raises itself once again. Baryonyx and Tyrannosaurus have never met: Tyrannosaurus lived at the very end of the ‘Age of Reptiles’, the Mesozoic, in the late Cretaceous, while Baryonyx live during the late Jurassic, much earlier than Tyrannosaurus did. In real life, the two reptiles never met – and this brings us to the upcoming ‘Fallen Kingdom’ movie. Technically.

Again, nothing in the JP-franchise was ever educational, even as timorous as it was in AFO or DW, (for example). It was pure fiction, even if the original Michael Crichton novel was actually based on scientific facts, (of its time). Ergo, it must be treated as such, and where does it leave us?

With the realization that until ‘Fallen Kingdom’ comes out anyhow, JP3 was more progressive – as far as fictional movies about dinosaurs go – than the initial JW movie. It introduced a brand new dinosaur ‘villain’ – Spinosaurus – and gave the pterosaurs (Pteranodons) the recognition denied to them in the first two movies. (In the original novel Dr. Grant and the children encountered the ‘dactyls’ – Cearodactyls – big, fish-eating pterosaurs, but let us talk about them another time). The first JW movie also features pterosaurs, Pteranodons and their smaller distant cousins as ‘hazards’ of some sort, while the main monster role passed from Spinosaurus to the imaginary I-Rex, but it came later than the JP3 movie did, meaning that the JP3 movie is the more progressive than the JW one, relatively speaking.

Now we come to the issue – is Baryonyx a substitute Spinosaurus? Odds are very good that it will be, yes. Somehow, the fight between T-Rex and Spinosaurus in JP3 became quite popular, and turned into ‘two dinosaurs fighting each other’ cliché. Movie dinosaurs, movie fictional dinosaurs are kaiju, basically, and the JP3’s Spinosaurus was a textbook example of it; ditto for the JW’s I-Rex. In ‘Fallen Kingdom’, either Baryonyx or the Indoraptors will take that role, but we will talk about the Indoraptors at another time – the point is that ‘Fallen Kingdom’ is a fictional movie with nary much logic, (especially by RL’s standards) and should be treated accordingly.

That is that for this time; see you all soon!