Scientists believe they have found the ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex

Researchers believe they have found a possible ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex, reports news agency Reuters.

A new analysis by researchers of a tibia found in the US state of New Mexico in the 1970s reveals that it belongs to a close relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, which lived several million years before perhaps the world’s most famous dinosaur.

The tibia fossil comes from about 74 million years ago, from the Cretaceous period. Tyrannosaurus rex lived about 68-65 million years ago.

The tibia is 96 centimeters long and 13 centimeters wide. According to the researchers, the measurements of the tibia indicate that the carnivorous dinosaur weighed about 4.7 tons and was about 10.5 meters long. The dinosaur was smaller than Tyrannosaurus rex.

Researchers are calling the dinosaur Hunter Wash’s tyrannosaurus after the discovery site.

“We would need a complete skull to know if it is a direct ancestor or a close cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex,” said the paleontologist Nick Longrich from the English University of Bath to Reuters. He is on Thursday Scientific Reports lead author of the study published in the journal

No other bones of the Hunter Wash tyrannosaurus have been found. A single bone is not enough to give a scientific name, reports Reuters.