92 million year fossils from the tiny relative of the tyrant dinosaur

Scientists identified a relative of the tyrant dinosaur as a 0.9-meter dinosaur from fossils dating back to 92 million years.

Sterling Nesbitt, a paleontologist at Virginia Tech, found its skeleton in 1998 while volunteering for excavations in New Mexico with a famous paleontologist.

For about two decades, scientists were not sure what it was until the small cousins ​​of the tyrant dinosaurs were discovered.

" The tyrannizardoid dinosaur group will grow into some of the largest predators we have ever seen," said Nesbitt, the lead author of the study in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Sterling Nesbitt next to the fossil bone of Suskityrannus hazelae, a tiny relative of the tyrant dinosaur, in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA, in March. (Photo: AP).

According to the AP, the new dinosaur species called Suskityrannus hazelae , is named after the language of the Zuni from wolves. It dates back to 92 million years, about 20 million years before the tyrant dinosaurs dominated the Earth.

The newly discovered cousin is three times longer than the height, weighing between 20 and 41kg, almost nothing compared to the 9-ton mass of the tyrant dinosaur.

Suskityrannus hazalae is not the first or smallest species of the Tyrannosaurus family, but Nesbitt said it is the best example of this modest-sized dinosaur family growing into a giant-sized dinosaur.

Nesbitt said the newly discovered species was probably one of the last remaining small dinosaurs at the time. It was larger than the previous tyrannizardoid and had a large foot needed for fast movement, something the tyrant dinosaurs couldn't.

1. Tyrannosaurus rex has a small "cousin"