Alioramus

What it was like

Alioramus was a meat-eating tyrannosaurid with a longer, narrower skull than most of its relatives. A row of small bony bumps ran along the top of its snout, and it carried more teeth in its jaws than other tyrannosaurids of similar size. Known fossils belong to young, not-fully-grown animals, so its adult size is not certain, though it likely reached around 6 meters (20 feet) long. Like other tyrannosaurids, it walked on two legs and had small forelimbs.

Its world

Alioramus lived in what is now Mongolia and China between about 72 and 66 million years ago, sharing its floodplain habitat with the much larger predator Tarbosaurus. Other neighbors included the huge, clawed Therizinosaurus, the ostrich-like Gallimimus, and the crested, duck-billed Saurolophus. With Tarbosaurus hunting the same ground, Alioramus, being smaller and lighter, may have targeted different prey to avoid competing directly.

How it was found

Kurzanov named Alioramus in 1976 from fossils recovered in the Nemegt Formation. Only about 3 finds are known, all from young individuals, which is why scientists are still working out how Alioramus relates to other tyrannosaurids, including Tarbosaurus and Qianzhousaurus.