The Clue Was in the Claw : London Museum Shows Meat-Eating Dinosaur

Claws is out to grab London.

Remains of the huge, 124-million-year-old newly discovered breed of dinosaur went on display at London’s Museum of Natural History this month.

The discovery of the prehistoric animal’s fossilized bones has been hailed as one of the most exciting dinosaur finds this century.

The dinosaur has become popularly known as Claws, but its scientific name is Baryonyx walkeri .

Enormous Claw Discovered

Baryonyx is Greek for “heavy claw” and walkeri is for William Walker, a fossil-collecting plumber who in May, 1983, discovered the first piece of the dinosaur--an enormous claw--south of London.

“The whole thing is so lucky, it’s unbelievable,” Walker told reporters when the exhibition opened. “It’s a massive creature and the one thing that popped out of the ground was the claw. That was marvelous. If a bone had popped out, they wouldn’t have batted an eyelid.”

Claws, who lived in swamps in what is now the southern county of Surrey and was preserved because it died at the bottom of a lake, is the only reasonably complete skeleton of a large flesh-eating dinosaur found in Britain this century.

“I didn’t have a son so this will carry on the family name,” said Walker, 59, beaming. “The wife and I hadn’t really planned on this addition at our age but we’ll accept it.”

Embedded in Rock

Walker, who became interested in fossils 14 years ago when his younger daughter Rita took up geology at school, said he knew that he had found a piece of dinosaur but did not realize the importance of his find until three weeks later when his son-in-law decided to show the fossil to the museum.

“It was embedded in a piece of rock and I hit it with a hammer twice and it fell apart. I glued it back together and it stayed on my shelf for three weeks,” he said, adding jokingly, “I’m surprised the museum is allowing me near it again.”

After the discovery of the 31-inch claw, excited museum experts excavated the dinosaur remains at the clay pit site.

Most of the bones were preserved in nodules of hard siltstone, surrounded by weald clay, which is used to make bricks. Others were found lying loose in the clay.

New Species, Genus, Family

Scientists estimate that it will take several more years of work to prepare all the bones to piece the dinosaur skeleton together.

They said molding and casting of the bones was already under way to provide other museums with replicas.

But they already know what Claws looked like. Because it differed so much from other dinosaurs--in possessing at least one disproportionately large claw bone--it was designated as the representative of a new species, genus and family.

The family is Baryonychidae, the genus Baryonyx and the type-species walkeri .

Dr. Alan Charig, the museum’s director in charge of prehistoric animals, says the beast was about 30 feet long, 12 or 16 feet tall when standing on its hind legs and weighed around two tons.

Powerful Arms, Fearsome Jaws

It had a narrow skull with a low snout, a long neck and large powerful arms. The claw bone found by Walker was probably the thumb of the dinosaur’s hand and would have been covered with a horny sheath, experts said.

“Its front legs were relatively longer and more robust than those of other theropods (flesh-eating dinosaurs that walked mainly on their hind legs) so it might have been able to walk on all fours too, which no other theropod could do,” they added.

They believe it ate fish, crouching on river banks or wading into shallow water. It would have hooked fish with its large claws or snatched them in its long jaws.