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Showing posts with label Alioramus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alioramus. Show all posts

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

A Tyrannosaur of a different branch

Alioramus is both very closely related too, and very different from Tyrannosaurus rex. It was found in Mongolia where it lived alongside the giant Tyrannosaur Tarbosaurus.
The fossil remains of Alioramus altus showing it's body in outline (image Conty/Wikipedia)


When discovered in 1976 Alioramus was given the specific name A. remotus because it was thought to be far removed from the large Tyrannosaurs like Tyrannosaurus and Tarbosaurus that lived at the same time. But a recently found Alioramus specimen has shed new light on this relationship.
Discovered in Mongolia in 2001 the new specimen was first described in 2009 and found to be sufficiently different to warrant it's own species name. It was given the specific name A. altai after the Altai mountains in southern Mongolia.