Researchers may have discovered a new species of tyrannosaur after performing a CT-scan on a subspecies that reveals their brains were very different from one another.
A group of researchers, led by those at Canadian Museum of Nature created a CT-scan of the brain of a mysterious dinosaur, Daspletosaurus, first talked about 50 years ago, was a tyrannosaur, a fearsome predator that lived in Alberta 75 million years ago and predated the Tyrannosaurus rex by 10 million years.
Experts may have discovered a new species of tyrannosaur. They performed a CT-scan on two Daspletosaurus (pictured) that reveals their brains were different from one another
The two specimens lived roughly two million years apart and had differences in their brains, ear structure and braincases
The scan, performed on two specimens, which lived roughly two million years apart, revealed that there were significant differences in both predators’ brains, ear structure and braincases.
‘We know that tyrannosaurs had relatively good-sized brains for a dinosaur, and this study shows that this pattern holds for Daspletosaurus,’ Dr Tetsuto Miyashita, palaeontologist with the Canadian Museum of Nature and senior author of the study, said in a statement.
‘Furthermore, based on the shapes of the brain, ear structure, and braincase, we suggest that these two specimens represent distinct species of daspletosaurs.’
The first species was discovered in 1921 near the Red Deer river in Alberta, but it wasn’t until 1970 when it was given the name Daspletosaurus torosus.
The second specimen, which was found in 2001 near Milk River in Alberta, is still being studied at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta to determine if it is indeed a new species.
The family Tyrannosauridae, includes not only the T. rex and its bone-crushing bite, but also Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus, Daspletosaurus and Tarbosaurus, according to the University of California, Berkeley.
Daspletosaurus has been thought of as sort of a catch-all for tyrannosaurs that did not firmly fall into one category or another, but with the new findings, that may no longer be the case.
‘Researchers have looked inside so few braincases in dinosaurs, typically one each for whatever species they studied, that this reinforced the assumption that these structures don’t change much within and among species,’ Miyashita added.
We just haven’t looked inside enough skulls to document variation.’
The first species (skull, pictured) was discovered in 1921 near the Red Deer river in Alberta The second specimen was found in 2001 near Milk River in Alberta
They also saw large air sacs that made up most of the braincase bones, in line with other tyrannosaurs
In April, a study was published that suggested T. rex may have hunted in packs, similar to wolves
In 2020, a separate group of researchers uncovered a new species of Tyrannosaurus rex in Canada they nicknamed the ‘Reaper of Death.’
In looking at the CT-scans, the researchers found canals in the dinosaurs’ heads with ‘thick nerve bundles that moved the eyeballs,’ according to the statement.
They also saw large air sacs that made up most of the braincase bones, in line with other tyrannosaurs.
‘These cavities within the bones not only make the huge skull lighter, but also are related to the middle region of the ear,’ Dr Ariana Paulina Carabajal, a dinosaur braincase expert in Argentina and study co-author, explained.
‘The cavities probably helped to amplify sound and assist the system that communicates to the left and right ears, allowing the brain to determine where a sound is coming from.’
The study has been published in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.
In April, a study was published that suggested T. rex may have hunted in packs, similar to wolves, after researchers looked at a mass T. rex death site in Utah.
A separate group of researchers found that Tyrannosaur parents were ‘fat-footed’ after analyzing footprints in western Canada.
In June, researchers from the University of Maryland found that juvenile T. rex took over and wiped out other predators, suggesting they were dominant from an early age.