The fossils of a tiny T-Rex ancestor were recently found.
Its actual name is Moros i
The fossils were in Utah, where this tyrannosaur-like dinosaur lived back in the Late Cretaceous period.
This discovery is a big deal because it predates all other tyrannosauroid fossils by about 15 million years
Person VS Dino Size Comparison
Image Attribution: Moros
By Tom Parker CC-BY-SA-4.0, wikipedia link
These little guys were situated to be the “Biggest and Baddest” in all the land.
As the previous head honcho dino’s, the Allosaurus began to die off, it left an opening that the Moros type dinosaurs were perfect to fill.
During this time-frame, it was actually advantageous to be small and versatile. This tiny T-Rex cousin would only have stood about 3-4 feet tall (Wikipedia). And it would have only weighed around 170 pounds.
Small But Deadly
But don’t let that small size make you feel comfortable. They were still ferocious hunters and eventually became the massive size T-Rex we know and love.
Want to learn more? Check out the original article on Nature.com