2 Remarkable Fossils Shed New Light on Dinosaurs

Pliosaur skull in the UK and a young tyrannosaur's last meal in Canada
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 11, 2023 8:24 AM CST
For Dinosaur Researchers, Two Remarkable Finds
A screen shot of the enormous skull.   (YouTube/BBC)

Two notable fossil discoveries are providing paleontologists with new information about dinosaurs:

  • Pliosaur: The giant skull of a beast described by one scientist as "an underwater T. Rex" was found on a cliff in Dorset in the UK, reports the BBC. The pliosaur skull is about 7 feet long and might be the most complete such skull ever found. The upper and lower jaws are intact, as are its 130 teeth, which will help scientists better understand how it hunted and consumed prey. Ridges on the skull might suggest differences between males and females, per New Scientist. "It's very likely a new species," says Judyth Sassoon of the University of Bristol. The specimen is thought to be a juvenile, suggesting pliosaurs were bigger than thought when they lived 75 million years ago. David Attenborough will air a show about the find on the BBC next month.

  • What's for dinner? In Canada, scientists found the fossil of a young tyrannosaur that preserved the creature's last meal—two turkey-sized dinosaurs who were speedy but not speedy enough, reports the Guardian. "This is really the first solid evidence that we have of what the diet or feeding behavior was in a juvenile tyrannosaur," says Dr. Darla Zelenitsky of the University of Calgary. The fossil of the Gorgosaurus libratus, described as a cousin of T. rex, was found in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta. Though it was only 5 to 7 years old, it weighed about 750 pounds at death. The find is detailed in a new study in Science Advances.
(More dinosaurs stories.)

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