У Техасі знайшли новий вид рогатого динозавра (12 фото)

A new species of dinosaur has been discovered by paleontologists in Montana. Daspletosaurus wilsoni, a tyrannosaurus rex with horns around its eyes roamed the North America 76 million years ago and was, as scientists suspect, ancient ancestor of tyrannosaurus rex.







The fearsome Tyrannosaurus Rex is often referred to as the "King of the Dinosaurs". But what came before him, and how he evolved to become a true ancient horror? Paleontologists seem to have come closer to answering this question after discovery of the remains of a "terrible" new species of tyrannosaurus rex with horns around eyes.





According to scientists, Daspletosaurus wilsoni, which was identified from a fossilized skull and skeletal fragments dated approximately 76.5 million years ago, may have been a direct ancestor of the Ti-rex.



A new species has been discovered in Montana and is regarded as a "point on halfway" or "missing link" between old and young species tyrannosaurs. It combines traits found in more primitive tyrannosaurs of older species, such as protruding a set of horns around the eye, as well as features known from later members of this group (including Tyrannosaurus Rex), such as high eye socket and dilated air pockets in the skull.



The genus Daspletosaurus means "terrible lizard" in Greek. Paleontologists at the Badlands Dinosaur Museum in North Dakota have discovered fossils associated with the new species, including bones of ribs and fingers feet, in the Judith River Formation in northeast Montana between 2017 to 2021.



The original discovery was made by paleontologist Jack Wilson, who noticed a small flat piece of bone sticking out from under a high rocks.



This distinctive flat bone was the middle part of the nostril tyrannosaurus. Careful excavations around the bone helped to find a complete premaxilla - the bone at the tip of the muzzle.



Several broken vertebrae found at the site showed that this there was a large tyrannosaurus rex, but on top of the bones lay an 8-meter stone. AT In 2020 and 2021, paleontologists used a jackhammer to dig down to the layer of bones, after which they found a partial skull and skeleton. The specimen was nicknamed "Sisyphus" in recognition of the enormous the effort required to remove the rocks.



Researchers believe that D. wilsoni was a descendant of Daspletosaurus torosus and the predecessor of Daspletosaurus horneri, which probably appeared 77-75 million years ago.



The anatomy of their new discovery supports the theory that Daspletosaurus is the ancestor of Tyrannosaurus Rex, scientists say.



All three species of Daspletosaurus belong to the Tyrannosauridae family, which includes nine genera, including Tyrannosaurus. "Many researchers disagree as to whether tyrannosaurids a single line developing in place, or several closely related species that are not descended from each other,” they say study co-authors Elias Warshaw and Denver Fowler. According to them, final determination is hampered by the lack of high-quality samples for study.



The discovery of Daspletosaurus wilsoni suggests that three species daspletosaurus appeared one after the other, like "successive steps in a single evolutionary line, ”the researchers wrote, and did not branch off from each other as "evolutionary cousins". Data received indicate that previous studies have correctly identified several species of daspletosaurus as a single evolutionary lineage, and confirm the origin of T. rex from this group.