SALT LAKE CITY — Paleontologists on Wednesday unveiled a dinosaur discovered four years ago in southern Utah that proves giant tyrant dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus rex were around 10 million years earlier than previously thought.
A full skeletal replica of the carnivore — the equivalent of the great uncle of the T. rex — was on display at the Natural History Museum of Utah.
It was the public’s first glimpse at the new species, which researchers named Lythronax argestes (LY’-throw-nax ar-GES’-tees). The first part of the name means “king of gore,” and the second part is derived from poet Homer’s southwest wind.
It was 24 feet long and 8 feet tall at the hip, and was covered in scales and feathers, said Mark Loewen, a University of Utah paleontologist who co-authored a journal article about the discovery.
Asked what the carnivorous dinosaur ate, Loewen said, “Whatever it wants.”
The fossils were found in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in November 2009, and a team of paleontologists spent the past four years digging them up and traveling the world to confirm they were a new species.
Paleontologists think the dinosaur lived 80 million years ago in the late Cretaceous Period.
