This dinosaur took a land bridge to cross from Asia to North America
The mighty Tyrannosaurus rex may have ruled prehistoric North America, but its roots trace back to Asia, revealed a new study.Scientists say that the T-rex's direct ancestor likely crossed over a land bridge from Asia more than 70 million years ago.'Our modelling suggests the 'grandparents' of T-rex likely came to North America from Asia, crossing the Bering Strait between what is now Siberia and Alaska,' said lead author Cassius Morrison, a PhD student at University College London Earth Sciences. The research, published in Royal Society Open Science, supports earlier findings that T-rex is more closely related to Asian species like Tarbosaurus than to North American ones such as Daspletosaurus.advertisement
The study used advanced mathematical models to trace how T-rex and its cousins spread around the globe. These models accounted for gaps in the fossil record and included data on climate, geography, and dinosaur family trees.T-rex itself evolved in North America, particularly in Laramidia — the western part of the continent during the Cretaceous period. The study challenged the claims of an earlier paper in 2023 which suggested that Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis, found in New Mexico, predated T-rex by several million years. The new research disputes the dating of that fossil.
The researchers suggested that tyrannosaurs may have been able to better exploit cooler temperatures. (Photo: Reuters)
advertisementThe team also found that both tyrannosaurids (the group that includes T-rex) and megaraptors, which are its lesser-known relatives, grew rapidly in size during a global cooling period that began 92 million years ago. This happened after the extinction of the carcharodontosaurids, another group of large meat-eating dinosaurs.The researchers suggest climate change may have helped tyrannosaurs thrive, possibly due to feathers or warm-blooded traits that suited colder weather.Megaraptors are particularly mysterious. Unlike the stocky T-rex, megaraptors had long arms and claws up to 35 cm (14 inches). They likely evolved in Asia 120 million years ago, spreading across Europe and the ancient southern supercontinent Gondwana, which included Africa, South America, and Antarctica.'They likely grew to such gigantic sizes to replace the equally giant carcharodontosaurid theropods that went extinct,' said co-author Charlie Scherer of UCL.Mauro Aranciaga Rolando, another co-author, added: 'In regions like Asia, megaraptors were eventually replaced by tyrannosaurs. But in places like Australia and Patagonia, they remained apex predators.'
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