Mesozoic Quick Fact Series
Tyrannosaurs: The ‘Kings’ of the Cretaceous
Meet the famous T.rex and its kin…
Mesozoic Quick Fact Series aims to provide interesting facts about various groups of extinct animals in a fun and readable way. We will focus on the highlights, so you don’t need to read extensive, time-consuming texts!
In this article, we will take a quick overview of the tyrannosaurs, the family of carnivorous theropods with massive skulls and terrifying teeth that includes the all-time-favorite Tyrannosaurus rex.
Let’s jump right through!
Starting with the basics…
The family of the ‘tyrant lizards’ was erected and named after the discovery of the eponymous Tyrannosaurus in 1905. Early in their existence, tyrannosaurs were small predators with long, three-fingered forelimbs. Most of the advanced genera though, became much larger, including some of the largest land-based predators ever to exist. These giants had proportionately small forelimbs with only two digits.
Scientists have identified primitive feathers in fossils of at least two tyrannosaur species and may have been present in other members of the group as well. Prominent bony crests in a variety of shapes and sizes on the skulls of many…
