In Depth
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.
