Tarbosaurus
TAR-bow-SAWR-us
- dlc
Like it’s more famous cousin Tyrannosaurus rex, Tarbosaurus is a tyrannosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period, and is native to Asia – in fact, many dinosaur experts believe it not to be its own genus, but an Asian species of Tyrannosaurus. Growing to around 10m in length and five tonnes in weight, this terrifying apex predator has one of the most powerful jaws ever found in a dinosaur, as well as rows of large, sharp teeth.
Discovery
Tarbosaurus was first discovered in the Gobi Desert in 1946, when an excavation of the Nemegt Formation in Mongolia unearthed a series of fossils including multiple vertebrae and a skull. Nine years later, the genus was formally named Tarbosaurus (from the Ancient Greek for ‘terror lizard’) by Soviet palaeontologist Evgeny Maleev.
Palaeoecology
This genus lived around 70 million years ago, roaming the flood plains of east Asia in search of food. As the apex predator of its ecosystem Tarbosaurus was at the top of the food chain and preyed upon large dinosaurs like Nemegtosaurus and Saurolophus.
Information
- Era
- Late Cretaceous
- Family
- Tyrannosauridae
- Genus
- Tarbosaurus
- height
- 4.8M
- length
- 12.2M
- weight
- 4.7T
- Diet
- Carnivore, Live Prey
- Egg batch size
- 1 - 2
