Tyrannosaurus babies were almost the size of Border Collies when they took their first steps, despite being able to grow up to 40 feet, according to a study released Monday.
A team of paleontologists made the discovery by examining the first known fossils of tyrannosaurus embryos.
“These bones are the first window into the early lives of tyrannosaurs and teach us about the size and appearance of baby tyrannosaurs,” University of Edinburgh paleontologist Greg Funston said in a statement.
The researchers, led by Funston, used the fossilized remains of a tiny bone and jaw, unearthed in Montana and Alberta, Canada, and created 3D scans to analyze the bones.
Their findings suggest that meat-eating creatures – cousins of the T-Rex dinosaurs that lived more than 70 million years ago – were only about 3 feet long when they hatched.
This would make them roughly the size of the common dog breed, and much larger than babies who are seen incubating in movies like “Jurassic Park”.
“Hatching tyrannosaurs would have been one of the largest animals to have hatched from an egg,” Funston wrote in a blog post about the research.
His team also estimated that tyrannosaurus eggs would have been approximately 17 inches long, a finding that researchers said could help identify these eggs more easily in the future and gain a better view of nesting habits. the creatures.
An additional analysis showed that tyrannosaurs were born with different physical traits, including “a pronounced chin,” which makes them look “remarkably like their parents,” which could weigh up to 8 tons as adults, the researchers said. .
“These are just the first clues to understanding babies’ tyrannosaurs,” Funston wrote, “but now we know where to look and what to look for.”
The study was published in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences and included researchers from the universities of Alberta, Calgary, Montana State and Chapman in California.