Teratophoneus is a genus of carnivorous tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur which lived during the late Cretaceous period (late Campanian age, about 77 to 76 million years ago) in what is now Utah, USA. It is known from an incomplete skull and postcranial skeleton recovered from the Kaiparowits Formation. They could potentially hunted Gryposaurus and Kosmoceratops. It was estimated to be about 20 feet (roughly 6 meters) in length and one metric ton in weight,this is only a juvenile and Aults are likely over 8 Meters(27 Feet) in length.[1]
Description[]
Life restoration
The holotype of Teratophoneus consists of a fragmentary skull and parts of the postcranial skeleton. The fossils were originally assigned to four different individuals, but are probably only of a single subadult animal. The specimen of Teratophoneus was not fully grown: according to an estimate by Carr et al. was about 6 metres (20 ft) in length and 667 kg in weight. However, this is probably an underestimate. In 2016, Gregory S. Paul gave an estimate of 8 meters and 2.5 tonnes for the maximum adult size. In the same year, Molina-Pérez and Larramendi estimated the holotype size at 6.4 meters long and 1.15 tonnes in body mass. In 2021, based on the size of the frontal bone, similar to that of Lythronax , Yun moderated the subadult size to approximately 6.10 meters long and 1 tonne in body mass. In the same year, the length of the only known articulated specimen, UMNH VP 21100 , was measured at 7.6 meters and the maximum adult length of Teratophoneus was estimated at 8.7 meters.
There is indication for social behaviore for this Tyrannosaurid species, In July 2014, researchers looking for fossil turtles in southern Utah’s public lands found hints of a “monstrous murderer”: the ankle bone of a tyrannosaur named Teratophoneus. Within hours, they had brushed through the sand between pinyon junipers and found the jumbled remains of multiple Teratophoneus—all of which seemed to have died in the same place, at the same time. Scientists unveiled the site to the world in a study published last Tuesday in the scientific journal PeerJ, suggesting tyrannosaurs congregated in social groups. “Dinosaur behavior, dinosaur ecology, is probably always going to turn out a little more complex than we think at any given time,” says lead study author Alan Titus, a paleontologist with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management who works in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, where the site is located. Titus even thinks that the site could be evidence that tyrannosaurs worked together as cooperative pack hunters. “Now you’ve got these giant terrestrial predators behaving in a group, much more akin to a pack of wolves and a pride of lions, [which] is staggering,” he says. Thomas Carr, a paleontologist at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who wasn’t involved with the new study, says that finding more signs of social dinosaurs shouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise. Extinct dinosaurs belong to a bigger group called the archosaurs, which includes social animals such as modern birds, alligators, and crocodiles.[2]
Holotype skull bones of Teratophoneus curriei
Compared to the skull of an Albertosaurus, Teratophoneus is roughly twenty-three percent shorter in proportion between the lacrimal bone of the orbital fenestra and the tip of the snout. The skull of Teratophoneus is also comparably deeper. It is unclear if there was a specific reason for these differences, but the extra depth may have allowed for stronger jaw muscles, increasing the bite force of Teratophoneus.
Discovery and naming[]
Skeletal diagrams showing holotype remains of Lythronax (A) and a Teratophoneus specimen (B). C–M show selected bones of the latter
Fossils of Teratophoneus were first found in the Kaiparowits Formation of southern Utah. Later, fossils from the same formation were discovered and identified as the genus. Argon-argon radiometric dating indicates that the Kaiparowits Formation was deposited between 76.1 and 74.0 million years ago, during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period. This date means that Teratophoneus lived in the middle of the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous.
Three different fossils of Teratophoneus have been found. Originally, Teratophoneus was described based on the holotype UMNH VP 16690. More recently, the specimens UMNP VP 16691 and BYU 8120 have been assigned to it. In 2017, a new specimen of Teratophoneus was discovered in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and airlifted to the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City. Subsequently, in 2021, fossils belonging to 4 or 5 individuals were described in the same study.
Teratophoneus was named by Thomas D. Carr, Thomas E. Williamson, Brooks B. Britt and Ken Stadtman in 2011 and the type species is T. curriei. The generic name is derived from Greek teras, "monster", and phoneus, "murderer". The specific name honors Philip J. Currie.
Classification[]
Loewen et al. (2013) conducted a phylogenetic analysis and confirmed the assignment of Teratophoneus to the theropod sub-family tyrannosaurinae. Teratophoneus was closely related but more primitive than the large theropods Tarbosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, but more derived than Daspletosaurus.
Skull nicknamed "Hollywood", also known as Ouroboros/Boris
Restored skull and fossils
Below is a cladogram based on the analysis by Loewen et al. in 2013.
| Tyrannosauridae |
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In 2020, when describing the genus Thanatotheristes , Voris et al. , 2020 found Teratophoneus to be in a subclade with Dynamoterror and Lythronax . The clade remains unnamed.
| Eutyrannosauria |
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Paleobiology[]
Herd behavior[]
A fossil bone bed from the Rainbow and Unicorn Quarry in the Kaiparowits Formation of southern Utah described in 2021 attributed to Teratophoneus suggests the genus was a social hunter. The fossils, consisting of four or possibly five animals ranging in age from 4 to 22 years, suggest a mass mortality event, possibly caused by flooding, or less likely by cyanobacterial toxicosis, fire, or drought.
The fact that all preserved animals died within a short period of time further strengthens the argument for gregarious behavior in tyrannosaurids, with bone beds of Teratophoneus , Albertosaurus , and Daspletosaurus showing that the potential behavior may have been widespread among tyrannosaurs in general.
Paleoecology[]
Habitat[]
Teratophoneus attacking a Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus
All Teratophoneus specimens were recovered from the Kaiparowits Formation in southern Utah, in sediments that were deposited about 75 million years ago. Argon-argon radiometric dating indicates that the Kaiparowits Formation was deposited between 76.1 and 74.0 million years ago, during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period. During this period, the Kaiparowits site was located near the western shore of the Niobrara Sea, a large inland sea that divided North America into two land masses, Laramidia to the west and Appalachia to the east. The plain on which the dinosaurs lived was an ancient floodplain of peat swamps surrounded by uplands. This formation provides one of the best and most continuous records of Cretaceous terrestrial life anywhere in the world.
Paleofauna[]
Teratophoneus shared its paleoenvironment with other theropods such as dromaeosaurids, the troodontid Talos sampsoni , ornithomimids such as Ornithomimus velox , the tyrannosaurid Albertosaurus , ankylosaurids, the hadrosaurids Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus and Gryposaurus monumentensis , the ceratopsians Utahceratops gettyi , Nasutoceratops titusi and Kosmoceratops richardsoni , and the oviraptorosaur Hagryphus giganteus . Paleofauna present in the Kaiparowits Formation include chondrichthyan fishes (sharks and rays), frogs, salamanders, turtles, lizards and crocodilians. A variety of early mammals were present including multituberculates, marsupials and insectivores.
Appearance in other media[]
Jurassic Park[]
- A Tyrannosaur skeleton is seen in the Lockwood Manor in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Which could be a Teratophoneus. "Based on one of the Skeletons that are displayed at the Natural History Museum of Utah". Also, a carcass of Teratophoneus was also see outside of the old transmitter station on Isla Nublar as it's 1st Big Screen appearance.
- A rather well-known artist goes by the online alias, "Teratophoneus."
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