Monday, October 05, 2015

The horror of October. Labocania

The few scant fragmentary remains of Labocania make it very difficult to classify,‭ ‬but analysis of the post cranial elements suggest that it was a tyrannosaurid.‭ ‬What parts of the skull which are known are more robust however suggesting that‭ ‬Labocania had a differently shaped skull.‭ ‬It is easy to see why Labocania is treated by many to be a dubious entry to the Tyrannosauroidea as no tyrannosaurs were known that far south at the time of its discovery.‭ ‬However the discovery of new tyrannosauroids such as Bistahieversor and Teratophoneus from the southern United States has not only shown that the tyrannosaurs were active in southern Laurasia‭ (‬Western Canada,‭ ‬United States and Mexico‭)‬,‭ ‬but that they had different skulls to the better known North American tyrannosaurs like Daspletosaurus and Albertosaurus.‭ ‬W new and hopefully better preserved material Labocania will be hard to confirm outright as a tyrannosauroid,‭ ‬but it is not as dubious as it once was.‭

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