Meet T-Rex’s older cousin: the Reaper of Death

Thanatotheristes degrootorum, which dates back about 80 million years, is thought to be the oldest member of the T-rex family discovered in North America so far

Eight-metre-long dinosaur was the only known large apex predator of its time in Canada

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An artist's impression of a Thanatotheristes degrootorum, a newly-discovered species of T-Rex. Image: University of Calgary and Royal Tyrrell Museum via AFP

Published: 1:42am, 11 Feb 2020Updated: 9:27pm, 11 Feb 2020

Scientists said on Monday they had discovered a new species of dinosaur closely related to Tyrannosaurus rex that strode the plain of North America some 80 million years ago.

Thanatotheristes degrootorum – Greek for “Reaper of Death” – is thought to be the oldest member of the T-Rex family yet discovered in northern North America, and would have grown to around eight metres (26 feet) in length.

“We chose a name that embodies what this tyrannosaur was as the only known large apex predator of its time in Canada, the reaper of death,” Darla Zelenitsky, assistant professor of Dinosaur Palaeobiology at Canada’s University of Calgary.

“The nickname has come to be Thanatos,” she said.

Thanatotheristes degrootorum had a long, deep snout, similar to more primitive tyrannosaurs that lived in the southern United States. Image: University of Calgary and Royal Tyrrell Museum via AFP

Whereas T-Rex – the most famous of all dinosaur species, immortalised in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 epic Jurassic Park – stalked its prey around 66 million years ago, Thanatos dates back at least 79 million years, the team said.