Moros intrepidus or wee rex

Moros intredipus or wee rex

96 million years ago in what is now Southern Utah there lived an ancestor of the well known Tyrannosaurus rex.  This dinosaur was recently found.  Of course its fossilized BONES were found.  It has been exticnt for almost 100 million years. 

Moros intrepidus was small compared to its gigantic decendants.  It was about the size of a white tail  deer  buck....or it weighed around 170 lbs. .  It could not evolve to apex predator status due to the presence of Allosaurs.  But once the Allosaurs went extinct the decendants of Moros started to evolve larger size.  They eventually became Daspleteosaurus, Albertosaurs, and of course the biggest. . . the 9 ton T. rex.    

Moros stood only about 4 feet oe 1.2 m  tall at the hips and maybe just under 5 feet or 1.5 m tall  at the top of the head.  These sizes are estimates since the full dino's skeleton was not found.  In fact its legs were found and thoight to be about 4 feet or 1.2 m long.  My guess is that it was somewhere between 5 and 6 or 7 feet long... or 1.5 to 2 meters long.  

This dinosaur was only very recently named.  It resembles early Tyrannosaurs from Europe.  This is all evidence that the Tyrannosaurs  crossed a land bridge from Asia.   After the Allosaurs were out of the way they evolved to huge sizes in only 16 million years. . . . to fill the niche of top predator in North America and Asia. 

Allosaurus by a River

White Tail Deer Buck and Doe

White Tail Deer Buck