Southern Tyrant Reptile

Tyrannosaurids monopolized the apex predator niche in latest Cretaceous Laurasia. Unfortunately, the preceding 100-million-year tyrannosauroid lineage is poorly documented, and its fossil record is restricted to the northern continents. We report an Australian tyrannosauroid, represented by a pubis...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inScience (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 327; no. 5973; p. 1613
Main Authors Benson, Roger B.J, Barrett, Paul M, Rich, Tom H, Vickers-Rich, Pat
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 26.03.2010
The American Association for the Advancement of Science
Subjects
Animals
Australia
Biodiversity
Brevia
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs - anatomy & histology
Fossils
Paleobiology
Pubic Bone - anatomy & histology
Tyranny
Victoria
Australia
Victoria
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Tyrannosaurids monopolized the apex predator niche in latest Cretaceous Laurasia. Unfortunately, the preceding 100-million-year tyrannosauroid lineage is poorly documented, and its fossil record is restricted to the northern continents. We report an Australian tyrannosauroid, represented by a pubis from the late Early Cretaceous of Victoria. This demonstrates that these extraordinarily successful predators were not restricted to Laurasia. The advanced morphology and small size of the specimen shows that tyrannosauroids with the characteristic short arms and robust skulls probably had a global distribution in the Early Cretaceous. Thus, a potentially cosmopolitan grade of small tyrannosauroids with a tyrannosaurid-like body plan preceded the Late Cretaceous rise of the colossal tyrannosaurids.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ObjectType-Article-2
ObjectType-Feature-1
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1187456