The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh and NC State University have announced a new study which provides “definitive proof” of a new tyrannosaur species which coexisted with the famous Tyrannosaurus rex. The new species, described as a “speedy and agile creature,” has been dubbed Nanotyrannus.
Governor Josh Stein hailed the findings as “the biggest dinosaur discovery of the decade” in a statement Thursday.
“North Carolina’s public universities and public museums are continuously on the forefront of scientific research and advancement,” he said.
Lindsay Zanno, head of paleontology at the Museum of Natural Sciences and an associate research professor at NC State, co-authored the Nanotyrannus study with James Napoli, an anatomist at Stony Brook University in New York. The study was published Thursday in the scientific journal Nature.
The findings come after paleontologists at the Museum of Natural Sciences’ SECU DinoLab studied two specimens known as the “Dueling Dinosaurs.” The fossil, originally unearthed in Montana, was acquired by the museum in 2020 and contains two dinosaurs preserved in a potential predator-prey encounter. Originally, scientists believed the pair to be a Triceratops and a juvenile T. rex, but further study has revealed the latter to be, in fact, a fully grown Nanotyrannus lancensis.
“This fossil doesn’t just settle the debate,” Zanno said. “It flips decades of T. rex research on its head.”
A release from Stein’s office in Raleigh calls the implications of the study “profound.”
“For decades, paleontologists have used Nanotyrannus fossils to model T. rex growth and behavior,” the release said. “New evidence reveals that those studies were based on two entirely different animals – and that multiple tyrannosaur species inhabited the same ecosystems in the final million years before an asteroid impact caused the mass extinction of dinosaurs.”
The SECU Din0Lab at the Museum of Natural Sciences is the world’s only paleontology preparation lab regularly open to the public. Zanno’s study is its first major research finding to be publicly announced. The “Dueling Dinosaurs” area at the museum includes two exhibits, and also sheds light on modern tools and techniques used by paleontologists.
“Being able to watch these discoveries unfold in real time, in a real laboratory, is a remarkable experience for visitors to the Museum of Natural Sciences,” said Pamela Cashwell, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
To learn more about Zanno’s discovery, the “Dueling Dinosaurs” exhibit and the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, visit the museum’s website here.
Featured image via Associated Press/Marc Hall
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