Name:
Juratyrant (Greek for "Jurassic tyrant"); pronounced JOOR-ah-tie-rant
Habitat:
Woodlands of England
Historical Period:
Late Jurassic (150 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 10 feet long and 500 pounds
Diet:
Meat
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Moderate size; long, narrow skull
About Juratyrant:
Until recently, England had little to boast about in the way of tyrannosaurs, which are more often associated with North America and Asia. In early 2012, though, a fossil specimen once assigned as a species of Stokesosaurus (a plain-vanilla English theropod) was identified as a genuine tyrannosaur and placed in its own genus. Juratyrant, as this dinosaur is now known, wasn't nearly as big or as fierce as Tyrannosaurus Rex, which appeared on the scene tens of millions of years later, but it must still have been a terror to the smaller wildlife of late Jurassic England.
