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Alioramus remotus (Kurzanov,1976) |
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Name Means: |
"Different Branch" |
Length: |
20 feet (6 m) |
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Pronounced: |
Al-ee-o-Ray-mus |
Weight: |
1 ton (1,800 kilos) |
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When it lived: |
Late Cretaceous - 73 MYA |
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Where found: |
Mongolia |
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Introduction |
Alioramus
is one of the least known Asian tyrannosaurids. It was a stretch-snouted
tyrannosaurid with a very rugose (bumpy) nose. In fact, there
seem to be 6 prominent bumps on the nose. Otherwise, it probably
looked very much like a T. rex. It has a very high tooth
count (for a tyrannosaur, at 18 maxillary teeth), which lends credence
to it being a primitive tyrannosaurid.
Alioramus is known from an incomplete
skull and some foot bones collected from Nogon-Tsav in Mongolia.. As
the name says, it is not a well known tyrannosaurid. It may have
been an early version of the Asian tyrannosaur family as it
has a braincase very similar to Tarbosaurus bataar. Like
Albertosaurus in North America, this early tyrannosaur was
not as large as its later cousins.
So little is known of this dinosaur that the there is even an
argument as to whether it belongs as a tyrannosaurid. Dr.
Phillip Curie wrote that the taxonomic status of Alioramus is
uncertain because of the incompleteness and immature nature of the
specimen. |
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Edugraphics.Net | Feenixx Publishing |
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