The first cousin of T. Rex, Moros Intrepidus, was not so powerful

(Newser)
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Tyrannosaurus rex was perhaps the most ferocious dinosaur on the planet just before the extinction of creatures, but even T-rex had a modest start. A new fossil discovered in Utah shows that a first iteration of the giant giant was only 3 to 4 feet tall and weighed around 170 pounds. A team led by paleontologist Lindsay Zanno of North Carolina State University named this version Moros Intrépidus, which means "foreboding of the disaster," reports CNN. The name is a nod to what the little creature would evolve in millions of years. Moros lived about 96 million years ago, 30 million years before the dinosaur we know as T – rex. This discovery could help shed light on the relatively rare records of this particular evolution.

"When and how tyrannosaurs went from wallflower to king of promise, paleontologists have been vexed for a long time," Zanno said in a press release. "The only way to tackle this problem was to go out and find more data on these rare animals." Not that Moros was a completed Wallflower: The bones discovered suggest that it was extremely fast. "It would have been easy to kill prey, while avoiding confrontation with the big predators of the day," says Zanno. At one point, the tyrannosaurs have supplanted the gigantic allosaurus as the dominant dinosaur in the world, but the exact timing and reason for this has been a mystery. Atlantic. Only recently discovered fossils can help reconstruct the puzzle, and Moros is considered an essential first step. (Read more about Tyrannosaurus rex stories.)