Scientists Discover ‘Primitive Tyrannosaurus’ Named ‘Death Harvester’, Measuring 9 Meters and Weighing 2 Tons

Ten years ago, a group of tourists were hiking and accidentally discovered several skull fragments, which they handed over to the museum. Subsequently, these fossils lay dormant and were ignored.

Ten years later, a graduate student interning at the museum discovered the bones' anomaly. After research, he believed these bones belonged to a 'primitive Tyrannosaurus'.

This 'primitive Tyrannosaurus' was 9 meters (30 feet) long and weighed 2 tons, smaller than the commonly known Tyrannosaurus Rex, but the 'primitive Tyrannosaurus' was older, appearing 12 million years earlier than the common Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Now the 'primitive Tyrannosaurus' has been formally named – Thanatotheristes Degrootorum, this scientific name is derived from Greek and means 'death harvester'.

Although 'death harvester' has a particularly cool name, experts believe this Tyrannosaurus Rex was not a dominant species, but was eliminated by Tyrannosaurus Rex 79 million years ago. The common Tyrannosaurus Rex generally measures 12 meters (40 feet) and weighs 9 tons.

That is, the petite 'death harvester' was wiped out by its much larger relatives, which is already a major advancement in science, because people didn't even notice the difference between 'death harvester' and common Tyrannosaurus Rex at the beginning.

In 2010, Canadian farmer John De Groot discovered skull fragments of 'death harvester' while hiking with his family beside a river in Alberta, Canada.

They delivered the discovery to the museum, but staff did not take it seriously. These fossils were stored in the museum's drawers for years until two years ago, when a graduate student, Jared Voris, noticed the bones' unique features – the spikes on the upper jawline, which brought these bones back to light.

Now experts say this dinosaur is the oldest Tyrannosaurus Rex discovered in Canada, 12 million years earlier than the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Voris said, '(death harvester) is older than Tyrannosaurus Rex, and they are distant relatives. It's known that 'death harvester' appeared millions of years after Tyrannosaurus Rex came to North America, invaded and replaced all Tyrannosaurus Rex we saw in North America.'

'death harvester' is the fifth different Tyrannosaurus discovered in Canada, and it is the only Tyrannosaurus discovered in 50 years.

The Canadian paleoecological community is very proud of the discovery of 'death harvester', they say that there is almost no place in the world that can boast of having five different Tyrannosaurus Rex, but Canada can.

'death harvester' is unfortunate, lying in the museum's drawer for nearly 10 years, until a discerning eye recognized it, but on the other hand, 'death harvester' is lucky, at least someone with a discerning eye found it, and countless fossils lie in fields, rivers or museum drawers, unknown and unappreciated, they have evolved for millions or billions of years, but they have not even been named.'

People's experience is similar to fossils, often unfulfilled, most of the time it's not a lack of strength, but a lack of a discerning eye!

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