Cousin Rex

New research has discovered that the Tyrannosaurs had a smaller cousin that roamed the planet in the Late Cretaceous period.

70 million year old fossils have been found that a ‘pgymy tyrannosaurs’ may have existed in ‘Laramidia’ which was in the northern-most reaches of North America in Alaska and the Arctic.

Known as Nanuqsaurus hoglundi, fossils have been found of adult skulls that measure 63 centimetres (25 inches) in length which is smaller than the standard T-rex size of 152 centimetres (60 inches). Predictions state that it was approximately two metres tall (six feet, six inches) and seven metres (22 feet, 11 inches) long.

The research comes from the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Texas and the smaller size is believed to have been due to the scarcity of food in the arctic. However, this discovery also explains the biological richness of the polar region in this period compared to today.