admin The world of paleontology is always full of surprises, and it’s not every day that a new species of dinosaur is discovered. On February 6th, 2023, researchers announced that they had found a new species of dinosaur that is closely linked to the Tyrannosaurus rex.
Thanatotheristes degrootorum, meaning “reaper of death” in Greek, is thought to be the oldest member of the T-Rex family discovered to date in northern North America. As an adult, he is said to have reached a length of around eight meters (26 feet).
“We chose a name that embodies how this tyrannosaur was Canada’s only known large predator of its day, the death reaper,” said Darla Zelenitsky, assistant professor of dinosaur paleobiology at the Canadian University of Calgary. “The nickname has become Thanatos,” he told AFP.
While Tyrannosaurus — the most famous of all dinosaur species, immortalized in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 epic Jurassic Park — hunted its prey some 66 million years ago, Thanatos dates back at least 79 million years, the team says. The specimen was discovered by Jared Voris, a Calgary graduate student; and is the first new species of Tyrannosaurus discovered in Canada in 50 years.
“There are relatively few species of tyrannosaurs,” said Zelenitsky, co-author of the study, which appears in the journal Cretaceous Research. “Due to the nature of the food web, these large apex predators were rare compared to herbivorous or herbivorous dinosaurs.”
The study found that Thanatos had a long, deep snout, similar to more primitive tyrannosaurs that lived in the southern United States. The researchers suggested that the difference in tyrannosaur skull shapes between regions could have been down to differences in diet, and dependant on the prey available at the time.
The discovery of a new species of dinosaur is an exciting moment for anyone interested in paleontology. The Reaper of Death, the newly discovered cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex, is a fascinating addition to the family tree of dinosaurs.
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about this incredible discovery and how it fits into the larger picture of dinosaur evolution. Keep an eye out for further updates and research on this fascinating creature, and who knows what other surprises the world of paleontology may have in store for us in the future!
