Paleontologists Discover New Pygmy T-Rex Species That Roamed the Arctic

A newly discovered dinosaur species, Nanuqsaurus hoglundi, is a close relative of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The root of its name, Nanuq, means polar bear, implying that it primarily roamed the arctic regions.

Paleontologists made the discovery in northern Alaska back in 2006, but it wasn't until recently that it was confirmed. Tony Fiorillo and a group of other paleontologists were searching the Prince Creek formation in Alaska in search of a horned dinosaur. The group then stumbled across bones that resembled skull fragments, but they were put aside because they weren't relevant to the main focus of the search.

The bones were uncovered while sifting through 70-million-year-old rocks in the Prince Creek Formation on Alaska's North Slope. The parts were collected and wrapped in foil then sealed in plastic buckets and shipped to Dallas, Texas for further examination at the Paleontology Lab of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. There, the rocks were removed from the bones to obtain a clearer depiction of the possible new species. The Nanuqsaurus hoglundi bones are now exhibited in the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

The researchers noted that the species was actually a close cousin of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and not a distant relative. The giveaway was the shaped ridge on N. hoglundi's head, along with its "deeply interlocking naso-maxillary contact," the published study reports in the journal PLOS ONE.

However, N. hoglundi was half the size of the T. Rex and roamed in a different climate. It measured approximately 20 feet in length and it inhabited the arctic areas of its time, which were comparable to Seattle's modern-day climate. Although the arctic weather wasn't as harsh back then, the area still experienced long periods of darkness and light, and food wasn't readily available in some seasons. The scientists believe that these periods of food scarcity contributed to the species' smaller size.

This new discovery of this tyrannosaur adds to a species number that is widely disputed to be as high as 11 and as low as three. To read more about Nanuqsaurus hoglundi, visit this National Geographic article.