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Lythronax

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Lythronax
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 80.6–79.9 Ma
Photo of a right-facing mounted skeleton with its skull turned to the right, in front of several other tyrannosaur skeletons
Reconstructed skeleton alongside those of other tyrannosaurs, Science Center of Iowa
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Family: Tyrannosauridae
Subfamily: Tyrannosaurinae
Genus: Lythronax
Loewen et al., 2013
Type species
Lythronax argestes
Loewen et al., 2013

Lythronax is an extinct genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur. It lived about 80 million years ago (mya) in what is now southern Utah. L. argestes is the oldest known tyrannosaurid based on its stratigraphic position.[1]

Comparisons to its close relatives suggest that Lythronax would have been about 8 m (26.2 ft) long, with a weight of around 2.5 tonnes (5,500 lb) and had a large skull filled with sharp teeth.[2]

The rostrum[3] is comparatively short: it makes up less than two thirds of the total skull length. The whole skull is very broad, 0.4 times as wide as long. Overall, the skull is similar to that of Tyrannosaurus and Tarbosaurus. Its robust jaws have two sizes of teeth: its first five teeth are much larger than the other six. Behind the skull, the rest of the skeleton is similar to that of other tyrannosaurids.[1]

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 Loewen M.A. et al (2013). Tyrant dinosaur evolution tracks the rise and fall of late Cretaceous oceans. In Evans, David C. PLoS ONE 8 (11): e79420. [1]
  2. "T. rex gets a new relative: Lythronax argestes, gore king of the south". Walking with dinosaurs. David Hone. Archived from the original on 8 November 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  3. front part of skull