Teratophoneus

Teratophoneus

• Utah ( Kaiparowits Formation)

• Teratophoneus curriei

Teratophoneus (from Greek Teratos = " Monster" and phoneus = " murderer ") was a genus of large carnivorous dinosaur of the family of tyrannosaurids. The only known species is Teratophoneus curriei.

Description

The holotype of Teratophoneus consists of a fragmentary skull and post-cranial parts of the skeleton. The fossils were originally assigned to four different individuals, but probably came from only one sub-adult animal.

Teratophoneus differs from other tyrannosaurids by a relatively short skull, as it can be derived in part from the smaller number of teeth as well as the short and after vornehin steep maxilla. Because of other tyrannosaurines is known that the skull subadulter animals elongated than the adult individuals are postulated Carr et al., That the skull of an adult Teratophoneus shorter ( "short - snouted " ) was.

Carr et al. estimate the weight of the holotype basis of the thigh to about 667 kg. This Teratophoneus was probably greater than Alioramus.

System

Teratophoneus is counted within the Tyrannosauridae to the subfamily Tyrannosaurinae that were common during the Cretaceous both in Asia and in North America and among the largest land carnivores of the time. Teratophoneus was more advanced than the Asian Alioramus and became the branch of Daspletosaurus, Tarbosaurus and Tyrannosaurus opposite.

Shortened cladogram by Carr et al. (2011)

Alioramus

Teratophoneus

Daspletosaurus

Tarbosaurus

Tyrannosaurus

Locality

The remains of Teratophoneus were found in southern Utah in the strata of the Kaiparowits Formation and the upper Campanian (about 76.1 to 74 million years) dated. This Teratophoneus is the only known tyrannosaurids, who lived during the Campanian in this region. Other North American tyrannosaurids of that time are known only from localities north of the Rocky Mountains. In addition Teratophoneus is the first Tyrannosauroidea ever described from the Kaiparowits formation.

Teratophoneus significantly expands the geographic and temporal distribution area of ​​Tyrannosaurinae and allowed, together with other new genres such as Bistahieversor, new insights on the early diversification of Tyrannosauroidea in North America.