Paleontologists have uncovered a never-before-seen tyrannosaur species in North America that has been masquerading as a Tyrannosaurus rex for decades. The newly identified species is the closest known relative of T. rex and could have been even larger than the dinosaur king, a new study shows.
The newfound sister species, Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis, was identified from a partial fossilized skull that paleontologists unearthed in 1983 while exploring the Hall Lake Formation in New Mexico. The calcified cranium was originally classified as a T. rex skull and has been displayed at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNHS) ever since. But in 2013, a team of paleontologists decided to reevaluate the skull after noticing subtle yet suspicious anomalies in its shape.
