DinoBlag: Bistahieversor

(Pictured: The skull of the animal in question.)

I know, right? Two blog posts in a day. Scandal. But hey, if I have the day off, why not?

I kinda missed the media hype a week or so past when this litte guy was discovered in the Kirtland Formation (formerly the Ojo Alamo Formation, after which the contemporary Alamosaurus was named). But now I can put him in a typical DinoBlag: Bistahieversor sealeyi. (Here, I'll help you out: bis-TAH-ee-eh-ver-ser SEEL-ee.)

Our friend Bis (as I will henceforce refer to him/her/it as) was gathered in the 1990s under the dubious name Aublysodon, which was attributed a century ago to the teeth of an unidentified juvenile tyrannosaur. Earlier last decade, it was attributed instead to a new species of Daspletosaurus, but research shows that it was different enough from Das (I'm a lazy typer) to belong to its own genus. And so, this year, Bistahieversor was born.

Its name means "Bistahi destroyer", Bistahi being the location where it was found, and a Navajo word meaning "formation of pueblos". Its adult size is estimated at 30 feet (9 meters), and it lived around 75 million years ago in the lower Maastrichtian. Though its affinities within the Tyrannosauroidea are uncertain, it has a deep snout, not unlike true tyrannosaurids.

Some scientists postulate that it was isolated from the more advanced northern tyrannosaurs by the growing Rocky Mountains, which at the time were far higher than today. By its skull characteristics, in my opinion, I would suppose that the dinosaur fed on hadrosaurs, much like its northern relatives Daspletosaurus, Albertosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus rex.

Bistahieversor sealeyi (Bis will catch on, you just watch!) was described by Carr and Williamson in 2010.