Nowadays, we know about dinosaurs only from the science class, cartoons, movies, documentaries, and online videos. But these fascinating and huge creatures had been representing a huge chapter from the history of Earth that lasted for millions of years. The dinosaurs had been extinct around 60 million years ago, but their legacy survived until today.
Researchers had been discovering numerous fossils in the soil, and thus they were able to be aware of the existence of the dinosaurs at some moment in history. The latest discovery is the Thanatotheristes degrootorum, a dinosaur species closely related to the iconic Tyrannosaurus Rex.
The creature lived around 80 million years ago
The newfound species, Thanatotheristes degrootorum, lived around 80 million years ago, and the first part of its name means “reaper of death”. However, it’s not called like that for nothing: the beast measured up to 30 feet in length and may have weighed up to two tonnes when fully grown.
The fossils of Thanatotheristes degrootorum had been initially discovered ten years ago in southern Alberta, Canada. The lucky guy that found them was the farmer and paleontology enthusiast John De Groot. Later on, a team of researchers from the University of Calgary and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, Canada, shed some light on the mystery of those fossils.
The author of the study, Mr. François Therrien, details for us what the discovery actually means:
Alberta has a rich dinosaur history, and we have uncovered some of the biggest finds on Earth here in the province,
The discovery of Thanatotheristes degrootorum is historic as it marks the first new species of tyrannosaur to be unearthed in Canada in 50 years. The last tyrannosaur described from Canada was Daspletosaurus in 1970.
Researchers truly believe that the discovery is significant because it fills a gap in our knowledge regarding the tyrannosaur evolution.
The study was published in the journal Cretaceous Research.
