This is what tyrannosaurs would have looked like when they hatched

Baby tyrannosaurs were about the size of Border Collies when they took their first steps – although they can reach 10 meters, according to a study released Monday.

A team of paleontologists made the discovery by examining the earliest known fossils of tyrannosaur embryos.

“These bones are the first window into the early lives of tyrannosaurs and they teach us about the size and appearance of baby tyrannosaurs,” University of Edinburgh paleontologist Greg Funston said in a statement.

The researchers, led by Funston, used the fossilized remains of a tiny jaw bone and a claw, found in Montana and Alberta, Canada, and created 3D scans to analyze the bones.

Their findings suggest that the meat-eating creatures – cousins ​​of the T-Rex dinosaurs that lived over 70 million years ago – were only 3 feet long when they hatched.

That would make them about the size of the common dog breed – and a lot bigger than the baby dinos seen hatching in movies like “Jurassic Park.”

“Newborn tyrannosaurs would have been among the largest animals to hatch from an egg,” Funston wrote in a research blog post.

His team also estimated that the tyrannosaurus eggs would have been around 17 inches long – a finding that the researchers say could help identify these eggs more easily in the future and better understand the creatures’ nesting habits.

Further analysis showed that tyrannosaurs were born with distinct physical traits, including “a pronounced chin” – which made them “remarkably resemble their parents”, who could weigh up to 8 tons as adults. , the researchers said.

“These are just the first clues to understanding baby tyrannosaurs,” Funston wrote, “but now we know where to look and what to look for.”

The study was published in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences and included researchers from the universities of Alberta, Calgary, the state of Montana and Chapman in California.