Museum Victoria’s Brian Choo talks about what makes Tarbosaurus a successful killer.
The 'Tarbosaurus bataar' was a giant carnivorous theropod dinosaur that lived in Mongolia at the very end of the Cretaceous period, somewhere between 65 and 70 million years ago. He was a member of a very famous family of carnivorous dinosaurs called the tyrannosaurids which included 'Tyrannosaurus rex', who lived in North America at about the same time
Tarbosaurus has a disproportionately big head, very thick bull-dog shaped neck, pathetically short little front arms with only two functional digits and he walked on powerful back legs with three big toes and a little toe that was always held off the ground.
'Tarbosaurus' and tyrannosaurs in general were meat eating dinosaurs, but their teeth are different to other dinosaurs. They had the front of the jaw adapted for nipping off big chunks of meat, while the back teeth were for splintering bones and pulping flesh. So this was a dinosaur that was much better at crushing through bone and thick flesh and thick hide than other meat eating dinosaurs.
'Tarbosaurus' is one of a group of dinosaurs that lived in the same time and same place in what is now present day Mongolia – it is called the Nemegt fauna.
Museum Victoria
Dinosaurs, 5118
Tarbosaurus bataar Mongolia Cretaceous period Tyrannosaurus rex fossils
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