A cute T-rex cousin from Utah

[Kasia]

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/moros-fills-tyrannosaur-origin-story/583264/

 

https://www.newsweek.com/new-dinosaur-utah-moros-intrepidus-tyrannosaurus-rex-1338776?piano_t=1

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Thanks for sharing, Kasia - this is quite cool!

Here's the paper describing the new tyrannosaur, by the way  

Moros intrepidus

 

-Christian

[Troodon]

Very cool.  Being described as a tyrannosauroid still unclear how it relates to late Cretaceous tyrannosaurids.  Interesting chart.

 

[CBchiefski]

Yes, that figure and mainly of the figures in the paper are great. It does a solid job of putting the new tyrannosauroid into context.

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

3 hours ago, CBchiefski said:

It does a solid job of putting the new tyrannosauroid into context.

 

Especially considering that there wasn't much fossil material to begin with... Just a few elements of the axial skeleton, and a few teeth...

 

Also, just noted this in the paper - not the most pleasant sounding fossil locality... 

 

-Christian

[CBchiefski]

6 hours ago, The Amateur Paleontologist said:

 

Especially considering that there wasn't much fossil material to begin with... Just a few elements of the axial skeleton, and a few teeth...

Also, just noted this in the paper - not the most pleasant sounding fossil locality... 

Indeed, which is why Moros is only being called a tyrannosauroid. There is a strong likelihood in time and as more fossils are found it will shift within the overall tyrannosauroidea family. Moros is of course quite basal but sorting out where it truly fits will require cranial remains. The amount of material used is in my mind the absolute lower limit (perhaps too little) new taxa should ever be described from, so little material makes comparing other specimens to the holotype often impossible.

Yes, have not worked the site but the Cedar Mountain Formation is every bit as unpleasant as it sounds with rather steep terrain.

[DD1991]

Moros is quite a significant tyrannosauroid find in North America because it is the pre-Turonian tyrannosauroid species from Cretaceous North America, considering that the fossil record of Early Cretaceous tyrannosauroids from North America comes from teeth but also foot bones found in the Cenomanian of New Jersey (Brownstein 2018). We're still waiting from the tyrannosauroid from the Turonian of Zuni Hills, New Mexico to be described.

 

Brownstein, Chase D. 2018. A tyrannosaurid from the Lower Cenomanian of New Jersey and its evolutionary and biogeographic implications. Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. 59 (1): 95-105.

[Troodon]

Jim Kirkland

"Moros teeth from the Univ. of Oklahoma collection that I photographed in the mid 1990s as a result of their extensive screenwashing operations in the Mussentuchit Mbr."