Jakarta –
So far, T rex has often been considered the top predator among dinosaurs. However, recent research has revealed that there is a relative of the T rex whose size beats the king of dinosaurs.
This conclusion was obtained from the discovery of the skull. This North American species of tyrannosaurus has been masquerading as Tyrannosaurus rex for decades.
The newly discovered sister species, Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis, was identified from a partial skull fossil that paleontologists unearthed in 1983 while exploring the Hall Lake Formation in New Mexico. The calcified skull was initially classified as a T rex skull and has been on display at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNHS) ever since.
However, in 2013, a team of paleontologists decided to re-evaluate the skull after noticing subtle but suspicious anomalies in its shape.
3-5 Million Years Older than T rex
In a new study published Thursday, January 11 in the journal Scientific Reports, the team revealed that the skull was dated to between 73 million and 71 million years ago during the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago). This makes T mcraeensis between 3 million and 5 million years older than T rex.
The striking age difference is the main clue that experts have discovered a new species. However, there are also major morphological differences that distinguish T mcraeensis from T rex, as stated in Live Science.
“The most striking difference is the shape of the lower jaw, which is more slender and curved (than T rex),” study co-author Nick Longrich, a paleontologist at the University of Bath in England, told Live Science.
“It also does not have protruding bosses or horns like those found on the top of the T rex’s eyes,” he added.
T mcraeensis also had fewer teeth than most other tyrannosaurs. This is one of the main reasons why researchers believe it is the closest relative of the T rex, because Longrich said the T rex also had fewer teeth.
The size of the skull suggests that this T mcraeensis was the same size as a typical adult T rex, which was about 39 feet (12 meters) long, about the size of a double-decker bus. However, other individuals of the same species may be larger.
“It is not impossible that T mcraeensis could be larger than T rex,” said Longrich.
“Because we only have one individual, it is unlikely that we will find the largest individual of the species,” he added.
According to Longrich, T mcraeensis was probably the top predator of its time, just like T rex. And if these kinships exist at the same time, they are likely evenly matched in a fight.
The spread of Tyrannosaurus to Asia
T rex and most other tyrannosaurs lived exclusively on the ancient landmass known as Laramidia, which comprised the region that is now the west coast of North America from Alaska to Mexico.
Until now, T rex’s closest relatives were a pair of tyrannosaurs named Tarbosaurus bataar and Zhuchengtyrannus magnus found in modern China and Mongolia. Both species date back further than T rex, suggesting that tyrannosaurs may have first appeared in what is now Asia, although this has never been confirmed.
This new finding suggests that Laramidia was likely the origin of the tyrannosaur lineage and implies that these dinosaurs later spread to Asia. However, there is still uncertainty regarding this.
Laramidia was home to a wide variety of dinosaur species, including several other recent discoveries, such as Sierraceratops turneri, a horned herbivore similar to Triceratops.
The new discovery is further evidence New Mexico is one of the best places in the world to look for new dinosaur species, said study co-author Spencer Lucas, a curator of geology and paleontology at NMMNHS in a statement sent to Live Science.
Watch the video “Sightings of Dinosaur Fossils that Extinct 90 Million Years Ago”
(nah/pal)
2024-01-14 03:00:00
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