Tyrannosauripus is an ichnogenus of dinosaur footprint. It was discovered by geologist Charles "Chuck" Pillmore in 1983 and formally described by Martin Lockley and Adrian Hunt in 1994. This fossil footprint from northern New Mexico is 96 cm long and given its Late Cretaceous age, it very likely belonged to the giant theropod dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex. In 2016 the size of this individual was estimated at 11.4 meters and 5.8-6.9 tonnes. Similar tridactyl dinosaur tracks in North America were discovered earlier and named Tyrannosauropus in 1971, but they were later recognized as hadrosaurid tracks and their description deemed inadequate, with Tyrannosauropus regarded as a nomen dubium. True footprints likely from Tyrannosaurus would not be found until the discovery of Tyrannosauripus. In 2007, a large tyrannosaurid track was found also in eastern Montana. In 2016, a probable fossil trackway of Tyrannosaurus was discovered in Wyoming.
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M. G. Lockley and A. P. Hunt. 1994. A track of the giant theropod dinosaur Tyrannosaurus from close to the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary, northern New Mexico. Ichnos 3:213-218
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Bibliographie (2)
L. Xing, K. Niu, and M. G. Lockley, H. Klein, A. Romilio, W. S. Persons, S. L. Brusatte. 2019. A probable tyrannosaurid track from the Upper Cretaceous of southern China. Science Bulletin 64(16):1136-1139
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M. G. Lockley and A. P. Hunt. 1994. A track of the giant theropod dinosaur Tyrannosaurus from close to the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary, northern New Mexico. Ichnos 3:213-218
DOI ↗