New species of tyrannosaur identified following Alberta fossil discovery

Source: CTV News

New species of tyrannosaur identified following Alberta fossil discovery

Kevin Fleming
Video Journalist
@CTVKevinFleming

Published Monday, February 10, 2020 9:30AM MST
Last Updated Monday, February 10, 2020 9:42AM MST

DRUMHELLER -- The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology houses one of the world's largest displays of dinosaurs and is Canada's only museum dedicated exclusively to the study of ancient life.

But what you don’t see is the large amount of fossils stored in rows of shelves and cabinets in the prepared collections storage room.

That’s where University of Calgary PhD student Jared Voris has spent years studying all the tyrannosaur bones. He was looking into the evolution of the species for his masters and realized there was much more work to do on the subject and made that the focus of his PhD.

Voris found one set of fossils that stood out from the four species of tyrannosaurs known in Alberta.

-snip-

Read more: https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/new-species-of-tyrannosaur-identified-following-alberta-fossil-discovery-1.4805161

______________________________________________________________________

Source: Agence France-Presse

'Reaper of death': scientists discover new dinosaur species related to T rex

Agence France-Presse in Paris
Mon 10 Feb 2020 22.20 GMT
Last modified on Mon 10 Feb 2020 22.27 GMT

Scientists in Canada have announced the discovery of a new species of dinosaur closely related to Tyrannosaurus rex that strode the plain of North America about 80m years ago.

Thanatotheristes degrootorum – Greek for “reaper of death” – is thought to be the oldest member of the T rex family yet discovered in northern North America, and would have grown to around 8m (26ft) in length.

“We chose a name that embodies what this tyrannosaur was as the only known large apex predator of its time in Canada, the reaper of death,” said Darla Zelenitsky, assistant professor of dinosaur palaeobiology at Canada’s University of Calgary.

“The nickname has come to be Thanatos,” she told AFP.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/feb/10/reaper-of-death-t-rex-dinosaur-species-canada