Newfound Giant Dinosaur Ruled Before T. Rex
Allosaurus cousin was top predator 98 million years ago.
Named Siats meekerorum (pronounced "See-atch"), the dinosaur discovered in eastern Utah by paleontologists was a previously unknown "apex," or top, predator that ruled long before North America's tyrannosaurs came to power. (See also: "Smallest Meat-Eating Dinosaur Discovered in North America.")
In the Nature Communications study published today, Lindsay Zanno of North Carolina State University and Peter Makovicky of Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History add to our knowledge of gigantic dinosaur predators prior to the days of Tyrannosaurus rex, which lived some 67 million years ago.
At full size, the two-legged carnivore may have weighed more than four tons and stretched nearly the length of a school bus.
The discoverers report that the dinosaur's first (or genus) name
