According to CNN, the official name of the new specifies is, ahem, Thanatotheristes Degrootorum, named after Thanatos, the Greek God of Death, theristes, which means one who reaps and Degrootorum derived from the Canadian farmer and paleontology enthusiast who found the fossil, John De Groot. But thats a lot harder to say than Reaper of Death, so were just going to go with that. The fragments of the fossilized skull that were used to identify the species were found in Alberta Canada, making the discovery the first new tyrannosaur found in Canada in 50 years. T-Deg (all right, it’s not as snappy as T-Rex) likely averaged between 26 and 30 feet in length and weighed more than two tons in adulthood, just slightly smaller than its 40-foot-tall cousin, T-Rex. Thanatos-D (slightly better) roamed throughout North America 79.5 million years ago, 2.5 million years before the T-Rex, and is now the earliest known member of the Tyrannosaur lineage.
Considering all that exists of this new species is the frontal part of the jaw, you’re going to have to rely on your imagination if you want to see what this beast mightve looked like, all scientists know so far, according to the Smithsonian Mag, is that The Reaper of Death (so snappy!) had a long snout, enabling it to bite quicker than other short-snouted Tyrannosaurs like the T-Rex. Sounds terrifying!
The Thanatotheristes Degrootorum will be displayed at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada later this year.
