Historic discovery rewrites T. Rex history | Eastern NC Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the Carolina Journal. The author of this post is Jacob Emmons.

    For years scientists believed that the Nanotyrannus was just a teenage version of the T. rex, although some speculated that it was its own distinct species. Today, that speculation has been put to bed as paleontologist, Associate Research Professor Lindsay Zanno of North Carolina State University, along with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, announced what is being called the most important dinosaur discovery of the decade.

    Paleontologists discovered definitive proof that the Nanotyrannus is indeed its own species of dinosaur.

    "This fossil doesn't just settle the debate, it flips decades of T. rex research on its head," says Zanno, co-author of the study and head of paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

    The fossil of the Nanotyrannus was a part of the "Dueling Dinosaurs" specimen that was unearthed in Montana with the other fossil being a Triceratops. Paleontologists at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences have been studying the dual fossils since the museum received them in 2020.

    "For Nanotyrannus to be a juvenile T. rex, it would need to defy everything we know about vertebrate growth, It's not just unlikely - it's impossible," said James Napoli, an anatomist at Stony Brook University in New York who co-authored the study.

    According to the study, spinal fusion data, growth rings, and anatomy, indicated to researchers that the Nanotyrannus specimen was fully physically mature and around 20 years old when it died. They say several features such as more teeth, distinct nerve patterns, fewer tail vertebrae, and larger forelimbs are fixed early on in development and are biologically incompatible with a T. rex.

    Napoli and Zanno have examined over 200 tyrannosaur fossils. Among them, they identified a previously discovered skeleton, which was originally classified as a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex but later reclassified as Nanotyrannus, that exhibited subtle but consistent anatomical differences from the Nanotyrannus specimen preserved in the "Dueling Dinosaurs" fossil. Based on these distinctions, they designated this skeleton as a new species within the Nanotyrannus genus, naming it "Nanotyrannus lethaeus."

    "This is the biggest dinosaur discovery of the decade, and I am proud that it is happening right here in North Carolina," said Governor Josh Stein in a press release on Thursday. "North Carolina's public universities and public museums are continuously on the forefront of scientific research and advancement."

    This new discovery, right here in North Carolina, has huge implications for paleontologists. Nanotyrannus fossils were used for years to study the T. rex, but now researchers say they were two completely different species. The discovery also hints that other smaller dinosaur species could have been wrongly identified just like the Nanotyrannus.


    To see the new discovery, visitors can go to the "Dueling Dinosaurs" experience at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. The experience has two exhibits which teaches visitors about the age of the dinosaurs plus how today's Paleontologists study dinosaur fossils.

    "The best part of this discovery is being able to share it with the world," said Zanno. "Anyone who wants to see a 100% complete Nanotyrannus can come to the museum, speak directly with the scientific team, and stand next to the real skeleton."