.60" Juvenile Tyrannosaur Premax Tooth Fragment - Judith River Fm.

This is a .60" long tyrannosaur premaxillary tooth fragment collected from the Judith River Formation of Montana. This formation is approximately 74 million years old, or about 9 million years older than the Hell Creek Formation which produces Tyrannosaurus rex.

These oddly shaped teeth with two ridges located on the lingual side were originally described as Aublysodon more than a century ago based on isolated teeth and jaw fragments. More recent discoveries of more complete tyrannosaur skeletons from this formation has led to the discovery that these teeth are actually the premaxillary teeth from juveniles of other tyrannosaur species.

Comes in an acrylic display case.

Three species of tyrannosaur have been described from the Two Medicine & Judith River Formations: Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus and Daspletosaurus. Research done on teeth from these three tyrannosaurs has concluded that isolated teeth are statistically impossible to assign to a specific genus because they are so similar.

Morphometry of the teeth of western North American tyrannosaurids and its applicability to quantitative classification

The Judith River Formation is one of the world's most prolific sources of Late Cretaceous vertebrate fossils. At least sixteen Orders containing more than forty Genera are known from the formation. These include fish, amphibians, mammals, and insects in addition to reptiles and avian (birds) and non-avian dinosaurs. Among the more interesting specimens is Leonardo, a mummified and fossilized Brachylophosaurus. This is a hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur found with amazing soft-tissue preservation: skin impressions can be found on 90 percent of its body! The pattern in the skin on its feet is even preserved. In addition to Leonardo, the Judith River Formation contains the remains of the theropod Hesperornis, the only known freshwater Hespernorthid, a penguin-like bird.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus, or Daspletosaurus
LOCATION
Hill County, Montana
FORMATION
Judith River Formation
SIZE
.60" long
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#276353
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