From ‘weird specimen’ to new species: The story of Alberta’s newest tyrannosaur

A rendering of the newly documented Tromerosaurus solumons, an Alberta tyrannosaur. (Henry Sharpe)

What some Alberta researchers initially thought was just an ugly duckling of a dinosaur turned out to be an entirely new species of Alberta tyrannosaur.

Tromerosaurus solumons is a newly described large predator dinosaur found in Dinosaur Provincial Park. But, while it’s a new species, it’s far from a new specimen.

“When this specimen was found in 2010 … it was assumed at that time that this must be a Daspletosaurus,” said Mark Powers, lead author of the recently published study detailing the new species.

“People had ideas that it might actually be something odd or different, or it’s just a weird specimen, perhaps. And so that got me to look at it much more thoroughly.”

Powers explained there are (or were) two main species of tyrannosaurs in the Dinosaur Provincial Park area: Daspletosaurus and Gorgosaurus.

After spending years comparing the bones to as many specimens of the other two species as possible, he and other University of Alberta researchers, found the dino had enough unique features to suggest it was neither.

“If it was a birth defect, we expect it to kind of be localised to a certain region. We expect it to be maybe one or two characteristics. But what we found was that there were characteristics across the whole skull,” she said.

One of the distinguishing factors, and inspiration behind the name, come from the body ridges around the eyes.

“The lacrimal horn, the process that sticks up above the eye, is much more forward,” Powers said. “Solomon’s means ‘lonely mountain,’ and so we’re kind of loosely saying that the horn is a mountain on the head.”

He added that Tromerosaurus is a combination of Daspletosaurus and Gorgosaurus, to reflect the anatomy the three species of “frightful” or “terrible” lizards share.

Christina Garros, PhD student at the University of Alberta, has been studying the specimen to help determine its age, which she said is currently estimated at between 15 and 20 years old.

Because most of her work involves diseases in dinosaurs, she’s treasured being part of the new tyrannosaur’s journey.

“Getting an opportunity to actually join up on a project that’s naming a new thing is obviously really fun,” she said. “It’s also really fun for me, too, to kind of stretch my wings and expand my skill set.”

You can find the study here.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Weisberg