Other Nightmarish New Species
By Jessie Geoffray
The Chicken from Hell
Paleontologists from the University of Utah announced the discovery of this 11-foot-long dinosaur in March. The 500-pound raptor is the largest known oviraptorosaur—a group of dinos closely related to birds—found in North America. Anzu wyliei roamed the Dakotas with T. rex about 66 million years ago, just before dinosaur end-times.
Mouth Full of Switchblades
In Portugal, paleontologists uncovered what may be Europe’s largest known terrestrial predator. Torvosaurus gurneyi ruled the continent during the Jurassic Period 150 million years ago. It weighed in at 2,200 pounds, and stretched 33 feet from snout to tail. Some of its blade-shaped teeth measured nearly four inches long.
Polar Half-Pint
Nanuqsaurus hoglundi, a new tyrannosaur recently found by Texas paleontologists, is believed to have lived some 70 million years ago in the region that’s now Alaska. The pygmy dinosaur, whose name translates to “polar bear lizard,” was only half the length of its domineering cousin, T. rex, and 1/15 its weight. This article originally appeared in the September 2014 issue of Popular Science.
