“Unveiling the ‘Reaper Of Death’: Canada’s Ancient Predator That Preys on the T. Rex’s Legacy!”
After that, it took researchers nearly a decade before anyone was able to take the bones out of storage and properly inspect them. Fortunately for Calgary University Ph.D. student Jared Voris, he turned out to be the one to do it.
He first noted that the long and deep snout was similar to the Daspletosaurus, indicating two separate tyrannosaur groups were represented in one specimen. The vertical ridges lining its upper jaw and battle scar were rather curious, too.
“The ridges were things that we had not seen before in another tyrannosaur, especially not another tyrannosaur from Alberta,” said Voris.
Alberta is renowned for an abundance of tyrannosaur fossils. From the Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus to the Daspletosaurus and T. rex, the Cretaceous period’s most famous dinosaur family seem to lie buried just beneath the surface. Even with all those fossils, though, Thanatos is the first new tyrannosaur species found in Canada in 50 years.
The findings, published in the journal Cretaceous Research, explained that the deep, long snout was far more comparable to the tyrannosaurs unearthed in the southern United States than those found up north in Canada.
Experts believe this distinction in skull shape is likely due to dietary differences and the available prey.
“There are very few species of tyrannosaurids, relatively speaking,” said Zelenitsky. “Because of the nature of the food chain, these large apex predators were rare compared to herbivorous or plant-eating dinosaurs.”
Jared VorisThe upper and lower jaw bones of the “Reaper of Death” sat unexamined for years until graduate student Jared Voris took a stab at analyzing the species and genus.
The oval-shaped cheekbones, too, led the research team to designate the specimen as part of a whole new species. The find turns out to have additional significance as it pushes the markers of this dinosaur family’s place in history back by a few million years.
