Dinosaur Fossil -Thanatotheristes | 12 Feb 2020

The scientists have revealed that a dinosaur fossil, found in Alberta in Canada (2010), belongs to a new species of tyrannosaur.

The new species has been named ‘Thanatotheristes degrootorum’ (means “reaper of death”).
The species is the oldest tyrannosaur known from northern North America.

Tyrannosaurs were one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs to have ever lived, with very large and high skulls.
They did not have one general body type; rather different tyrannosaur species evolved distinct body sizes, skull forms and other such physical features.
The found fossils are important to understand the Late Cretaceous period, which is the period when tyrannosaurs roamed the Earth.
- Cretaceous Period, in geologic time, is the last of the three periods of the Mesozoic Era. The Cretaceous began 145.0 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago; it followed the Jurassic Period and was succeeded by the Paleogene Period .