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Gorgosaurus

Gorgosaurus
Image by Mike Chung (Redpath Museum).

For many years, the name Albertosaurus referred to a large number of tyrannosaurids. We know that this specimen is in fact a Gorgosaurus, a species that lived about five million years before Albertosaurus.

Species: Gorgosaurus libratus
Family: Tyrannosauridae
Group: Theropoda
Name means: Fierce Lizard
Adult Size: 8 metres long (26 ft)

Size comparison of the gorgosaurus
Source: Matt Martyniuk. Accessed at the . .

Weight: 1000 kg (1 tonne)
Age at death: Teenager, only about 70% full-grown adult size.
Lived during: Late Cretaceous (74 million years ago)
Diet: Meat

Known distribution: Southern Alberta and parts of Montana

Gorgosaurus, known distribution, Redpath Museum
Image credit: Bruno Paul Stenson (Redpath Museum)


Behaviour: This group of dinosaurs probably lived and hunted in packs
Discovery: Found in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, by Levi Sternberg in 1920. The original fossil bones are at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Other info: In comparison to the related Tyrannosaurus rex, the Gorgosaurus was 2/3 smaller but probably ran faster and had a few more teeth. The two small forearms had two clawed digits or fingers. The teeth had serrated edges like a steak knife for sawing flesh.

Gorgosaurus, broken leg, Redpath Museum

Image credit: Adrian Bobb (Redpath Museum)

Land Acknowledgement

ÎÛÎÛ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ University is on land which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. We acknowledge and thank the diverse Indigenous peoples whose presence marks this territory on which peoples of the world now gather.

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