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| Julius Csotonyi / The University of Calgary and Ro |
About 80 million years ago, a formidable Saurian predator from the T. rex family roamed the plains of present-day Canada, meticulously tracking down its prey with spectacular efficiency. This dinosaur, discovered by a team of Canadian paleontologists, received the name of "reaper of death". This important discovery will allow paleontologists to reconstruct the Tyrannosaurus lineage in more detail.
Canadian paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new species of dinosaur closely related to Tyrannosaurus rex , which roamed the plain of North America about 80 million years ago. Thanatotheristes degrootorum (from the Greek for "death harvester") is the oldest member of the T. rex family discovered to date in northern North America and has reached a length of about 8 meters. T. degrootorum is the tenth tyrannosaurid species identified in North America.
“We have chosen a name that embodies what this tyrannosaurus was: the only known large predator of its time in Canada, the reaper of death. The nickname has become Thanatos,” said Darla Zelenitsky, study co-author and professor of dinosaur paleobiology at the University of Canada.
While T. rex - the most famous of all dinosaur species - tracked its prey about 66 million years ago, Thanatos dates back at least 79 million years. The specimen is the first new tyrannosaurus species found in Canada in 50 years.
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| Artist's impression of the new dinosaur. Credits: Julius Csotonyi / The University of Calgary and Ro |
“There are very few species of tyrannosaurids. Due to the nature of the food chain, these large top predators were rare compared to herbivorous or herbivorous dinosaurs," said Zelenitsky in an article published in the journal Cretaceous Research .
The study found that Thanatos had a long, deep snout, similar to that of the more primitive tyrannosaurs that lived in the southern United States. The researchers suggested that the difference in skull shape of the tyrannosaurs between regions could have been due to differences in diet and also in prey available at the time.
| Bibliography: A new tyrannosaurine (Theropoda:Tyrannosauridae) from the Campanian Foremost Formation of Alberta, Canada, provides insight into the evolution and biogeography of tyrannosaurids Authors: Jared T.Vorisa, Caleb M.Brown .... Cretaceous Research https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104388 |