Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Critter of the day, 5/13/09: Daspletosaurus


Today's creature seems at first to be so close to Tyrannosaurus, that some scientists have hypothesized that it may be rexy's direct ancestor: Daspletosaurus torosus. This large tyrannosaurid lived between 80 and 73 million years ago. It was relatively robust, with a thick skull and stout legs. It coexisted with the smaller tyrannosaur Gorgosaurus libratus, and so it is currently believed that they occupied different dietary niches. It's known that Gorgosaurus probably fed mostly on hadrosaurs (duck-bills) like Parasaurolophus and Edmontosaurus, but it is still unclear at present exactly what Daspletosaurus's diet was. It was a relatively large tyrannosaur, at over 30 feet (9 meters) long. It was described by Russell in 1970.

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