Re: Tyrannosaurus imperialis?

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 06:34 PM 6/20/98 -0400, Joe Moro wrote:
>I've heard over the net from several  friends that a new spcies of
>tyrannosaur was discovered, T. imperialis (sp?)....and its skull was 7 FEET
>long! I don't know if this was exaggerated by the excavators,

Yes.  It is.  Furthermore, the actual value cannot be verified at present,
as they (the folks on the land where it was found, not the actual team
digging it up) tried to collect the skull with a backhoe... :-(

>but it seems
>pretty big compared to T. rex, which has a skull around 4 feet long. Please
>tell me if this information is accurate or not...thanks.

It is almost certainly not accurate.  There is a possibility the specimen
involved is as big as the largest other known T. rex specimens, but claims
that it is dramatically larger have not been verified.

Also, there is at yet no evidence put forth to suggest this is anything
other than Tyrannosaurus rex.  Please refrain from spreading the rumor this
is a new species.

(I warned people this would happen, didn't I...)

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661