New dinosaur may have been the true "rex"

Sunday, November 24, 2013, 3:24 PM -

It might be time for the T. rex to put down its crown, as it may not have always been the king. 

A newly discovered dinosaur in Utah named Siats meekerorum (pronounced "see-atch") may have been the ruler before the Tyrannosaurs' heyday. 

Paleontologists found a collection of black bone fragments in Utah's Cedar Mountain Formation. They were excited with their findings as they hoped the new dinosaur would help fill in the gaps in the large predator evolution. 

The bones belonged to a juvenile Siats which at full size could have weighed more than four tons and been nearly 10 meters high. Those measurements still put the dinosaur near the top of the list. A juvenile Siats is the third largest predator ever discovered. An adult would have likely been even larger. 

The Siats is assumed to have a body similar to that of Allosaurus, which would mean longer arms and a pointier head when compared to a T. rex. 

Alongside the bones of the Siats, were the teeth of a much smaller tyrannosaur, approximately the size of the large dog. In fact, it's only the extinction of the Siats that could have given the T. rex the liberty to evolve to the giant predator status they obtained later on.