New Tyrannosaur Discoveries Reveal Details about T. rex [Slide Show]
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Tyrannosaurus rex The so-called king of dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex , has been shown, by its more humble forerunners to be a complex, nuanced creature, the product of more than a hundred million years of tyrannosaur evolution... WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/SCOTT ROBERT ANSEIMO
Tarbosaurus A close relative of Alioramus and T. rex , Tarbosaurus is the second-largest known tyrannosaur, with a 1.3-meter-long skull and 12-meter-long body.
The probable biomechanics of these extinct animals suggest that they were likely not very fast, even though "the long legs and large pelvic limb muscles…intuitively seem to indicate fast running capacity," the researchers wrote in the new study... WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/GUNNAR RIES
Alioramus Alioramus , which lived some 70 million to 65 million years ago, measured in at about five to six meters long and was larger than many of the more basal tyrannosaurs. Tyrannosaurs, especially the larger ones, spent much of their lives growing to full size... WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/NOBU TAMURA
Raptorex Although a predecessor to the line that would lead to T. rex , Raptorex already exhibited many of the interesting characteristics of these diverse dinosaurs, including a big head and teeth, long legs and short arms... WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/NOBU TAMURA
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Dilong Tyrannosaurs are theropod dinosaurs, a group which also includes dromaeosaurs, oviraptorosaurs and avialans (or modern birds). Dilong (shown here), which lived some 130 million years ago, seems to already have been covered with protofeathers... WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/KABACCHI
Guanlong Tyrannosaurs emerged about 165 million years ago, during the middle Jurassic, about 100 million years before T. rex lived. The earliest tyrannosaurs were quite a bit smaller than the tremendous Tyrannosaurus rex , including many that were close to human size... WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/RENATO SANTOS
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