Daspletosaurus facts for kids
Quick facts for kids DaspletosaurusTemporal range: Upper Cretaceous
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Daspletosaurus
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Daspletosaurus (say "Das-PLEET-oh-SORE-us") means "frightful lizard." It was a huge meat-eating dinosaur from the tyrannosaur family. This amazing creature lived a long, long time ago, about 76 to 72 million years ago. That was during the Upper Cretaceous period.
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Meet Daspletosaurus
Daspletosaurus was a very large theropod dinosaur. It could grow to be about 26 to 33 feet (8 to 10 meters) long. That's longer than a school bus! It weighed around 2 to 3 tons (about 3,000 kilograms). Imagine a big truck, but a dinosaur!
This powerful dinosaur walked on two strong legs. It had tiny horns just behind its eyes. Its arms were a little bit longer than those of its famous cousin, T. rex. Scientists think Daspletosaurus might even be an ancestor of Tyrannosaurus.
Where and When It Lived
Daspletosaurus lived in what is now Alberta, Canada. It preferred marshy areas near streams. This means it lived in wet, swampy places.
It was alive during the Upper Cretaceous period. This was a time when many different dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
What It Ate
Daspletosaurus was a meat-eater, also known as a carnivore. It was a fierce predator. Scientists believe it might have hunted dinosaurs like Triceratops. Imagine a huge dinosaur chasing another huge dinosaur!
Who Discovered It?
The Daspletosaurus was first named by a scientist named D.A. Russell in 1970. The main type of Daspletosaurus is called D. torosus.
Images for kids
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The D. torosus holotype specimen mounted at the Canadian Museum of Nature.
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Originally believed to be a specimen of Gorgosaurus, this skull was later sold to the Field Museum and is now reassigned to Daspletosaurus
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D. horneri holotype skull from Montana in Museum of the Rockies
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Restoration of D. torosus
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Restoration
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Dinosaur Park specimen (FMNH PR308), mounted at the Field Museum
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Daspletosaurus horneri skeletal mount at the Museum Center at Union Terminal
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Two D. torosus models in the Canadian Museum of Nature
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Daspletosaurus skull with bite marks from another tyrannosaur
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A graph showing the hypothesized growth curves (body mass versus age) of four tyrannosaurids. Daspletosaurus is shown in green, based on Erickson et al., 2004
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Growth series of D. horneri
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D. torosus skeleton cast in the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center based on a nearly complete specimen from Montana's Judith River Formation.
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Skull of a juvenile D. horneri
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Restoration of Daspletosaurus feeding on a juvenile ceratopsian
See also
In Spanish: Daspletosaurus para niños
