Search the Community

I remember very well when I was in Middle school and the discovery of the fossils of the early Cretaceous theropod Siats meekerorum (Cenomanian Creteaceous (What is now western North America), 94 Million Years ago) in Utah was announced in 2013. The incredible discovery was on the front page of a decent amount of the newspapers for sale at my local Jewel grocery store (I even cut out the part of the newspaper describing Siat's discovery and still have it). Image Credit: Jorge Gonzales https://www.sci.news/paleontology/science-siats-meekerorum-dinosaur-utah-01567.html At the time, I simply heard it was a carnosaur (specifically an allosauroid) and didn't really notice debates about Siat's taxonomic placement...That is until two days ago. I was researching Tyrannosauroid diversity in Early Cretaceous North America when I came across a recent Scientific paper from July 2022 by Paleontologists Dr. Darren Naish and Dr. Andrea Cau analyzing Eotyrannus lengi and other Tyrannosaur dinosaurs placement within Tyrannosauroidea. It's pretty well researched and I highly recommend you guys read the paper!!! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9271276/ Despite the paper being pretty well researched, the authors made a conclusion that has me scratching my head a bit - they place Siats as a Non Tyrannosaurid Tyrannosauroidea!??