The Most Controversial Dinosaur In History Just Returned
The Dueling Dinosaurs, held at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, is a historic find that was finally described in October 2025. The block preserved a young Triceratops found articulated with a tyrannosaur--frequently cited as a juvenile Tyrannosaurus. Well, not anymore! With the description of the Dueling Dinosaurs, including an in-depth analysis of the 100% complete tyrannosaur, we now know beyond a reasonable doubt that this animal was not a T. rex. It’s a Nanotyrannus lancensis, and its existence completely changes our understanding of the ecology of Late Cretaceous North America.
Check out @skeletoncrew8122 's video here: • We Ended the Greatest Debate in Paleontolo...
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REFERENCES
Nanotyrannus description paper https://doc.rero.ch/record/14603/file...
Zanno, L. E. et al. Nanotyrannus and Tyrannosaurus coexisted at the close of the Cretaceous. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09... (2025)
Napoli’s 2024 preprint on the ontogeny issue in vertebrates https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.11...
Jane and Petey still had growth to do https://www.sci.news/paleontology/juv...
Moros intrepidus description paper https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles...
Jane running speed https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.11...
Jane bite force https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles...
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