Re: [dinosaur] Giant Tarbosaurus skull

[Thomas Richard Holtz <tholtz@umd.edu>]

The largest described skeleton isn't from the largest described individual, however. The type skull is from an animal much larger than the typical TarbosaurusÂskeletons found: that's why Maleev originally regarded it as a different species (Tyrannosaurus bataarÂrather than Tarbosaurus efremovi).

Note that this poached specimen is likely reconstructed to some degree. On top of that, the scaled image with a human figure is GROSSLY misleading: if you match the human silhouette to the 1 m bar, it is clearly the silhouette of a really muscular jockey rather than the standard 1.8 m scale-man.

On Fri, Apr 23, 2021 at 7:11 AM Poekilopleuron <dinosaurtom2015@seznam.cz> wrote:

Good day!

In some social media a news has arrived that there is a giant _Tarbosaurus bataar_ skull, that is an enormous 149 cm long, supposedly in a private collection (no ad here!). If it is a real fossil, what would it mean for the size estimations of this species? So far the largest Tarbosaurus skull has a reconstructed full length of about 135 cm, which is some 10.0 % smaller. Largest formally described specimen that was 10.0 meters long and its mass was probably around 4500 kg (according to PÃrez and Larramendi, 2016). This new giant specimen would hence be perhaps 11.0 meters long and its mass would be around 6050 kg. That would put it in the size category of an average-sized Tyrannosaurus rex, albeit with a relatively very large skull.

If we use the largest estimates for _T. bataar_ (length 12 meters, mass 6000 kg; than it would increase to 13.2 m and 8070 kg resp., making it one of the largest known tyrannosaurids and theropods in general). Any ideas? Thank you in advance! Tom

--

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