Tarbosaurus is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that flourished in Asia about 70 million years ago. Fossils have been recovered in Mongolia, with more fragmentary remains found further afield in parts of China. Some experts see this species as an Asian representative of the North American genus Tyrannosaurus. It had a unique locking mechanism in its lower jaw and the smallest forelimbs relative to body size of all Tyrannosaurids.
About Tarbosaurus in brief
Tarbosaurus is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that flourished in Asia about 70 million years ago, at the end of the Late Cretaceous Period. Fossils have been recovered in Mongolia, with more fragmentary remains found further afield in parts of China. Although many species have been named, modern paleontologists recognize only one, T. bataar, as valid. Some experts see this species as an Asian representative of the North American genus Tyrannosaurus. Tarbosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, if not synonymous, are considered to be at least closely related genera. It had a unique locking mechanism in its lower jaw and the smallest forelimbs relative to body size of all Tyrannosaurids. It lived in a humid floodplain criss-crossed by river channels, probably preying on other large dinosaurs like the hadrosaur Saurolophus or the sauropod Nemegtosaurus. It was a large bipedal predator, weighing up to 5 metric tons and equipped with about sixty large teeth. Its skull mechanics have allowed scientific studies to focus on its phylogeny, skull mechanics, and brain structure. It is considered to contain a single known species,Tarbosaurus bataars, which has been named after Ivan Yefremov, a Russian paleontologist and science fiction author. The specific name is a misspelling of the Mongolian баатарbaatar.
In the same year, Maleev also described and named three new skulls, each associated with skeletal remains discovered by the same expedition in 1948 and 1949. All three of these latter specimens are smaller than the first. A 1965 paper by A. K. Rozhdestvensky recognized all of Maleev’s specimens as different growth stages of the same species. A 1999 study reclassified Maleevosaurus novojilovi, for a total of three species, as a juvenile Tarbososaurus. All research since 1999 recognizes only a single species, which is either a juvenile or a Tyrannosaurus bataara or a single genus, either Tarbosauras or Tyrannosaurus efremovi. The first of these species was named Tarbosaura efremeovi, a new generic name composed of the Ancient Greek τάρβος and σαυρος. The other two were also named as new species and assigned to the North America genus Gorgosaurus. All three were later reclassified as a separate genus, which he called Maleevosaurs novoJilovi. It has since been disproven with the discovery of Qianzhousaurus and the description of the Alioramini, though this has also been proved to be the closest relative of Tarbosarus. In 1946, a joint Soviet-Mongolian expedition to the Gobi Desert in the Mongoliaian Ömnögovi Province turned up a large theropods skull and some vertebrae in the NemEGt Formation.
You want to know more about Tarbosaurus?
This page is based on the article Tarbosaurus published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
