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A Tiny T-Rex?
How big do you think the erce Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur was? Circle one: Little Big Really Big Really, Really, Really big It turns out not all T-Rex were big. Scientists have discovered a much smaller relative of the dinosaur.
Artwork by Andrey Atuchin
Images courtesy of Virginia Tech
What is the T-Rex Called? This much smaller T-Rex is called Suskityrannus.
How Big Was the Suskityrannus? It was about 3 feet tall and 9 feet long from nose to tail.
Suski comes from the Zuni Native American word for “coyote” and the Latin word “tyrannus,” which means king. Combined, the name would be “Coyote King.” Do you think this is a good name?
Where was this fossil found? The fossil for the Suskityrannus was found by Sterling Nesbitt when he was just 16 years old! He was on a school dig trip in the Zuni Basin of western New Mexico. That was 26 years ago. At first, scientists thought the fossil Nesbitt discovered was a velociraptor. New research has determined that is actually a cousin of the T-Rex—which is the news!
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I am: ❑ taller ❑ shorter than the Suskityrannus. The Suskityrannus weighed between 45 to 90 pounds. This is way less than the T-Rex which weighed around 9 tons!
Photo: Hazel Wolfe
© Vicki Whiting September 2024
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