Ant Lab | Moros intrepidus: North America's Tiny Tyrannosaur @AntLab | Uploaded February 2019 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
“Diminutive, fleet-footed tyrannosauroid narrows the 70-million-year gap in the North American fossil record”
Published in Communications Biology
21 Feb 2019
DOI: 10.1038/s42003-019-0308-7
Authors: Lindsay Zanno, Terry Gates, Aurore Canoville, Haviv Avrahami, North Carolina State University; Peter Makovicky, Field Musem; Ryan Tucker, Stellenbosch University
Abstract:
To date, eco-evolutionary dynamics in the ascent of tyrannosauroids to top predator roles have been obscured by a 70-million-year gap in the North American (NA) record. Here we report discovery of the oldest Cretaceous NA tyrannosauroid, extending the lineage by ~15 million years. The new taxon—Moros intrepidus gen. et sp. nov.—is represented by a hind limb from an individual nearing skeletal maturity at 6–7 years. With a ~ 1.2-m limb length and 78 kg mass, M. intrepidus ranks among the smallest Cretaceous tyrannosauroids, restricting the window for rapid mass increases preceding the appearance of colossal eutyrannosaurs. Phylogenetic affinity with Asian taxa supports transcontinental interchange as the means by which iconic biotas of the terminal Cretaceous were established in NA. The unexpectedly diminutive and highly cursorial bauplan of NA’s earliest Cretaceous tyrannosauroids reveals an evolutionary strategy reliant on speed and small size during their prolonged stint as marginal predators.
More: expeditionlive.org
“Diminutive, fleet-footed tyrannosauroid narrows the 70-million-year gap in the North American fossil record”
Published in Communications Biology
21 Feb 2019
DOI: 10.1038/s42003-019-0308-7
Authors: Lindsay Zanno, Terry Gates, Aurore Canoville, Haviv Avrahami, North Carolina State University; Peter Makovicky, Field Musem; Ryan Tucker, Stellenbosch University
Abstract:
To date, eco-evolutionary dynamics in the ascent of tyrannosauroids to top predator roles have been obscured by a 70-million-year gap in the North American (NA) record. Here we report discovery of the oldest Cretaceous NA tyrannosauroid, extending the lineage by ~15 million years. The new taxon—Moros intrepidus gen. et sp. nov.—is represented by a hind limb from an individual nearing skeletal maturity at 6–7 years. With a ~ 1.2-m limb length and 78 kg mass, M. intrepidus ranks among the smallest Cretaceous tyrannosauroids, restricting the window for rapid mass increases preceding the appearance of colossal eutyrannosaurs. Phylogenetic affinity with Asian taxa supports transcontinental interchange as the means by which iconic biotas of the terminal Cretaceous were established in NA. The unexpectedly diminutive and highly cursorial bauplan of NA’s earliest Cretaceous tyrannosauroids reveals an evolutionary strategy reliant on speed and small size during their prolonged stint as marginal predators.
More: expeditionlive.org
