Paleontologists may have discovered a fossil of a baby dinosaur known as Tyrannosaurus Rex in Hell Creek Formation, central Montana’s Hell Creek
The remains that have been discovered include the upper jaw and has all teeth intact. Even more, there were also some parts of the dinosaur’s skull, hips and backbones.
From the analysis of the teeth, paleontologists believe that the remains come from a Tyrannosaurus rex that lived around 66.5 million years ago; furthermore, they seem to be coming from a juvenile rather than from an adult. However, this information hasn’t been confirmed yet, as more research into the matter needs to be conducted. Another possibility is that the remains’ owner was a small, carnivorous dinosaur.
David Burnham from Biodiversity Institute of The University of Kansas is a little bit skeptical and says that it is rare to find remains of a young T. Rex. Moreover, he added that so far, only a few have been found.
As the recently discovered fossils are coming from a juvenile and the few remains that have been discovered so far are coming from a full-grown dinsoaur, it is hard to make a connection between the two and identify changes caused by growth. With this in mind, researchers don’t eliminate the possibility of the remains belonging to a different species.
“It’s reasonable to assume Nanotyrannus could be valid – but we must show it’s not just a stage in the life history of T. Rex,” Burnham
The researcher went on to add that finding the dinosaur’s age is confusing, as the bones of the adults do not look the same as when they were younger, making it different to make a connection between them.
Further research on the matter is about to be done in order to find out more details about the remains.
Source: techtimes.com
