TARBOSAURUS
baatar
This giant creature was the Asian counterpart of the T-rex and
belonged to the largest Asian predators. Tarbosaurus lived in Mongolia at
the same time that T-rex roamed North America. It was the carnosaurian
theropod, belonging to the family Tyrannosauridae. Tarbosaurus was an
extremely close relative of T-rex, that it is believed by some scientists,
that the two should be placed in the same genus; Tarbosaurus would be
renamed Tyrannosaurus baatar. (To its own genus Tarbosaurus is frequently
assigned the Asian species Tyrannosaurus baatar.) As the Tarbosaurus is more
ancient than the T-rex, it suggests the genus could initially have appeared
in Asia and then entered North America (through the land bridge connecting
these continents in the Cretaceous). Tarbosaurus was a carnivore, eating anything it came across. Because
of its bulkiness, it was probably a scavenger. But there is still debate,
whether tyrannosaurids were active predators or scavengers. These dinosaurs
were probably herding animals they could hunt for large herbivorous
dinosaurs (Saurolophus etc.).
Tarbosaurus had sturdy and quite long legs and its fore limbs were
reduced as typical of all carnosaurs. Function of their forelimbs is still
not clear. Like other tyrannosaurs, it had a huge head with large cutting
serrated teeth. Its brain was unbelievably tiny in comparison with its huge
body.
PLACE: Nemagetu, Gobi Desert, southern Mongolia
LENGTH: 31-40 ft (9-12 m)
WEIGTH: 4-5 tonnes
TIME
- 68 - 65 MYA, Late Cretaceous period.
RANGE
- Asia (Mongolia)
DIET
- Carnivore (meat eater)
SIZE
- Up to 46ft (14m) long and 24ft(8m) tall. |
