Researchers from a museum in North Carolina have discovered a new, giant predatory dinosaur that they believed roamed the Earth some 100 million years ago.
The new dino is the first of its kind to be discovered in North America, according to a press release issued by The Field Museum.
The study appeared in the Nov. 22 issue of Nature Communications.
"This dinosaur was a colossal predator second only to the great T. rex and perhaps Acrocanthosarus in the North American fossil record," says Lindsay Zanno, lead author on the paper and Director of Paleontology at NCMNS/NCSU.
Scientists have agreed to name the new dinosaur Siats meekerorum, which was named after the Meeker family for their support of The Field Museum and a cannibalistic monster from the mythology of Ute Native American culture.
Siats meekerorum was first discovered back in 2008 by Zanno as part of a huge expedition to 100-million-year-old rocks of the Cedar Mountain Formation in Utah, according to the press release.
The remains of the new dino were found during excavation over two separate summers. Volunteers then had to clean the rocks at The Field Museum.
"We were thrilled to discover the first dinosaur of its kind in North America and add to mounting evidence that dinosaurs were widely dispersed across the globe 100 million years ago," said study co-author Peter Makovicky, Curator of Dinosaurs at the Field Museum.
The new predator dinosaur was of 30-feet-ling and weighed close to four tons.
Siats is not related to the T.rex and other tyrannosaurs that ruled North America many years ago. Experts believe Siats belongs in the carchardontosaurian group of theropods, which includes the likes of the Argentinean Giganotosaurus.
"The huge size difference certainly suggests that tyrannosaurs were held in check by carcharodontosaurs, and only evolved into enormous apex predators after the carcharodontosaurs disappeared," said Makovicky.
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