Paleontologists have found the remains of a predator, terrifies the herbivores of the Cretaceous period, long before the famous Tyrannosaurus rex. Nevertheless, he also belongs to the family tyrannosauridae and have terrible t Rex relative.
Fragments of the jaws with well-preserved teeth of an ancient monster was discovered in Canada in 2010. Subsequent years were spent on the detailed study findings, which were eventually described in a scientific paper published in the journal Cretaceous Research.
after examining the fossil, scientists concluded that the dinosaur belonged to the unknown science genus, and species. It was called Thanatotheristes degrootorum. The first word in the Greek means “Reaper of death”.
Choosing such an intimidating name, the authors wanted to emphasize that we are talking about the predator in the top of the food chain. It probably was the storm of the herbivores of the Cretaceous period, while he himself had no natural enemies.
they Found the remains allowed to carry the ancient predator to a new genus, and species.Illustration Of Jared Voris.
Judging by the size of the jaw, T. degrootorum had a height of about 2.4 meters. The size of the animal is not too impressive compared to the T. rex, because the latter has reached four meters in height. But the earliest instances of this giant have an age of 70 million years, while they found the remains of T. degrootorum much older, 79 million years.
according to BBC, the teeth “the Reaper” exceeded a length of 7 inches and resembled knives for cutting meat. While the elongated skull was common with the more primitive tyrannosauridae, who lived in the South of the current United States. Other predators of this family the muzzle was less stretched. The differences may have been associated with feature extraction, on which they hunted.
the Fossils reveal new details of the evolution tyrannosaurids.Illustration Of The Royal Tyrrell Museum.
By the way, T. degrootorum became the first tyrannosaurids discovered in Canada since 1970, when there were found daspletosaurus. Moreover, the “Reaper” was the oldest known representative of the family in North America.
Finding allowed the authors to conclude that tyrannosaurid consist of a few treasure (groups of genera, United by a common ancestor). In particular, T. degrootorum with daspletosaurus formed put.
earlier, “Conduct.Science” (nauka.vesti.ru) wrote about dinosaur with “weapons in their paws” and the predator, which became the nightmare of the Jurassic period.
