Outline: a typical theropod
Thanatotheristes
"reaper of death"
Type species Thanatotheristes degrootorum
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Tyrannosauridae
- Found in
- Canada
- Named by
- Voris et al. 2020
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Thanatotheristes
What it was like
Thanatotheristes was a tyrannosaur, a big two-legged hunter with a deep skull and strong teeth. Its long upper jaw carried rows of ridges and pits along its sides, a feature not seen in other tyrannosaurs.
It was a close cousin of Daspletosaurus and belongs to the same branch of the tyrannosaur family.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous, between about 84 and 72 million years ago, in what is now Alberta, Canada. Its fossils come from the Foremost Formation, where it would have been the top predator. It shared the land with the horned Xenoceratops, the dome-headed Colepiocephale and the small raptor Dromaeosaurus.
How it was found
Voris and colleagues named Thanatotheristes in 2020, from two finds. It is the oldest tyrannosaur known from Canada.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Tyrannosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: J. T. Voris, F. Therrien, and D. K. Zelenitsky, C. M. Brown. 2020. A new tyrannosaurine (Theropoda:Tyrannosauridae) from the Campanian Foremost Formation of Alberta, Canada, provides insight into the evolution and biogeography of tyrannosaurids. Cretaceous Research 110:104388:1-15