Welcome Dynamoterror dynastes!
This is another very special Fossil Friday for Western Science Center and our colleagues at Zuni Dinosaur Institute for Geosciences and Southwest Paleontological Society. Hot on the heels of our new armored herbivorous dinosaur, Invictarx zephyri comes this new tyrannosaur. Like Invictarx, Dynamoterror lived 80 million years ago in what is now New Mexico and is published in the online open-access journal PeerJ. Dynamoterror is known from an incomplete skeleton that includes bones from the skull, hand, foot, and many other fragments.
The first image shows the two frontal bones from the top of the skull of Dynamoterror (left and right) and the 3D-print of the composite frontals created at Western Science Center (center). We made the 3D-print by laser-scanning the actual fossils, building 3D digital models of them, and then mirroring and combining the models based upon overlapping anatomical features preserved on both frontals. This 3D-print helped us refine our interpretation of the anatomy in this region of the skull and is a nifty item to share at public events!Dynamoterror lived at the same time and place as Invictarx and the hadrosaur I have posted for Fossil Friday the last three weeks, and probably was quite a threat to them. Paleoartist Brian Engh has depicted a less than friendly encounter between Dynamoterror and Invictarx in a spectacular piece of artwork.Post by Curator Dr. Andrew T. McDonald.