Dinosaur Type #14
Tyrannosaurs
Just say the word "tyrannosaur," and most people immediately picture the king of all dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus Rex. However, as any paleontologist worth his pickaxe will tell you, T. Rex was far from the only tyrannosaur roaming the forests, plains, and swamplands of the Cretaceous period (although it was certainly one of the biggest).
As
you might already have guessed, tyrannosaurs were closely related to
dromaeosaurs--the relatively small, two-legged, vicious dinosaurs better
known as raptors. In this light, it's not surprising that one of the oldest tyrannosaurs yet discovered,Guanlong,
which lived in Asia about 160 million years ago, was about the size of
your average raptor, about 10 feet long from head to tail. Other early tyrannosaurs were also fairly petite but no less vicious.
Although there are numerous types of tyrannosaurs, the king of all dinosaurs will always be the feared T-Rex! The movie star too!
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