Small ‘cousins’ of T. rex may actually have been growing teenagers

Fossil analyses suggest that Nanotyrannus wasn’t a diminutive kin of the more famous behemoth

Nanotyrannus

A dinosaur called Nanotyrannus (left in this illustration), once thought to be a smaller cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex (right), was probably a juvenile T. rex, a new study suggests.

Julius T. Csotonyi

Small but fearsome dinosaurs once thought to be pygmy kin of Tyrannosaurus rex instead may have been mere juveniles of the iconic species, new analyses of fossils suggest.