‘Colossal’ New Species of Predatory Dinosaur Dwarfed Tyrannosaurs, Scientists Say
An enormous new species of predatory dinosaur has been discovered in the fossil beds of southeastern Utah, paleontologists say, a “colossal” carnivore that was the apex predator of its day — even giving tyrannosaurs a run for their money.
An artist’s rendering depicts Siats meekerorum, (pronounced see-atch), which lived 98 million years ago in what’s now southeastern Utah. (Jorge Gonzales)
Though just a juvenile, the newly found specimen measured some 9 meters long and weighed at least 4 tons at the time of its death 98 million years ago.
Adults of its kind were probably half-again as large, dwarfing the tyrannosaurs of its time, according to scientists.
But despite its familiar, T. rex-like build, this new species — named Siats after a cannibalistic, mischievous monster of Ute legend — was no tyrannosaur.
Instead, it was a member of the even rarer (and harder to pronounce) carcharodontosaurs, or “shark-toothed lizards” — a family of outsized carnivores represented in North America by only one other species.
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http://westerndigs.org/colossal-new-species-of-predatory-dinosaur-dwarfed-tyrannosaurs-scientists-say/
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