Dynamoterror
Name:
Dynamoterror
(Power terror).
Phonetic: Dy-nah-mo-teh-ror.
Named By: A. T. McDonald, D. G. Wolfe
& A. C. Dooley Jr - 2018.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Theropoda, Tyrannosauridae, Tyrannosaurinae.
Species: D. dynastes (type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Roughly estimated at 9 meters long.
Known locations: USA, New Mexico - Menefee
Formation.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial skull and postcranial
remains.
A
relative of
the famous Tyrannosaurus,
Dynamoterror lived further south in what is
now the New Mexico area of the USA. Described after a pain staking
process of re-combined the partial remains of the holotype,
Dynamoterror was revealed to have been a
medium/large nine meter long
predatory dinosaur. This is smaller than the largest known
tyrannosaurs,
but certainly a comfortable average for most
tyrannosaurs in North America during the Campanian stage of the
Cretaceous. Dynamoterror is at the time of its
writing one of the
oldest members of the Tyrannosauridae in North America.
Dynamoterror
is known to have
lived in the same habitat as armoured nodosaurid
dinosaurs such as
Invictarx.
It is possible that at times Dynamoterror attacked
these
dinosaurs, and probably other kinds that we have yet to discover.
Dynamoterror however was not the only large
predator in the area
that it lived. Fossil remains from the same fossil bearing formation
as Dynamoterror have also been attributed to the
giant crocodile
Deinosuchus.
Fossil remains from other locations have shown that
these massive crocodiles had no fear of lashing out at tyrannosaurs.
Another
early tyrannosaur
that lived in North America at the same approximate time as
Dynamoterror is Lythronax,
while the genus Bistahieversor
is also
known from New Mexico, but from a different fossil bearing rock
formation.
Further reading
- A new tyrannosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Upper
Cretaceous Menefee Formation of New Mexico. PeerJ. 6. - A.
T. McDonald, D. G. Wolfe & A. C. Dooley Jr -
2018.
- New data on the tyrannosaurid dinosaur Dynamoterror, including a more
complete skeleton, from the Menefee Formation (middle Campanian) of New
Mexico, USA: Implications for tyrannosaurid evolution in southern
Laramidia. - The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. - A.T. McDonald,
D.G. Wolfe & A.C. Dooley - 2021.
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