‘Unusually large’ tyrannosaur leg bone points to 10,000-pound behemoth
Source: Popular Science
A newly uncovered tyrannosaur leg bone is shaking things up in the dinosaur world. The leg bone uncovered in New Mexico belongs to an unusually large tyrannosaur—the group of dinosaurs that includes the mightyTyrannosaurus rex. The shinbone is three feet long and about five inches in diameter, only slightly smaller than the largest known Tyrannosaurus specimen. The giant leg bone is detailed in a study published today in the journal Scientific Reports.
The shinbone was uncovered in northwestern New Mexico’s fossil-rich Kirtland Formation. It dates back 74 million years ago to the Late Campanian age. At the time, present-day North America had a subtropical climate and was split in half by a seaway that ran from the Gulf of Mexico north to the Arctic. This particular tyrannosaur lived near the seaway’s western coast, which was full of jungles and forests.
“For New Mexico during the time this tyrannosaur roamed the landscape, picture something like the current Gulf Coast, a low-lying floodplain,” Anthony Fiorillo, a study co-author and paleontologist at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science tells Popular Science. “Other dinosaurs that were part of the ecosystem include horned dinosaurs, armored dinosaurs, and duckbilled dinosaurs, such as the new duckbilled dinosaur Ahshislesaurus that we named last fall. The flora included conifers, angiosperms, ferns, and horsetails.”
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LINK:
https://www.popsci.com/science/large-tyrannosaur-leg-bone/