New Tyrannosaur Found in Japan

In Japan, dinosaur fossils are about as rare as hen's teeth. That's why it's such exciting news that researchers have found the teeth of a carnivorous dinosaur (likely a type of tyrannosaur) in Tamba, Hyogo Prefecture, embedded in rock strata dating back about 140 million years, to the very start of the Cretaceous period.

Judging by this as-yet-unnamed carnivore's teeth, it probably measured about 17 feet long--which may prompt some reconsideration about the size of the earliest tyrannosaurs. Previously, it was thought that tyrannosaur precursors like Guanlong and Dilong were only modestly proportioned, plus-sized models like T. Rex appearing much later in the Cretaceous period.