Species is thought to be the oldest member of the T rex family yet discovered in northern North America
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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 237 m years ago.
“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.
Whereas T rex – the most famous of all (dinosaur) species – stalked its prey aboutr m years ago, Thanatos dates back at least m years, the team said.
The specimen was discovered by Jared Voris, a PhD student at Calgary, and is the first new tyrannosaur species found for years in Canada.
“There are very few species of tyrannosaurids, relatively speaking,” said Zelenitsky, co-author of the study that appeared in the journal Cretaceous Research. “Because of the nature of the food chain these large apex predators were rare compared to herbivorous or plant-eating dinosaurs.”
The study found that Thanatos had a long, deep snout, similar to more primitive tyrannosaurs that lived in the southern US.
The researchers suggested that the difference in tyrannosaur skull shapes between regions could have been down to differences in diet, and dependent on the prey available at the time.
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