Science Daily: New Mexico is known for Aztec ruins and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Paleontologists Thomas Williamson of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Thomas Carr of Carthage College is now bringing a new superstar to the state.
Bistahieversor sealeyi (pronounced: bistah-he-ee-versor see-lee-eye) is a new species of tyrannosaur discovered in the Bisti/De-na-zin Wilderness of New Mexico. Tyrannosaurs include the famous meat-eating dinosaurs like T. rex, with their characteristic body and skull shape and their mouthful of ferocious teeth that make them easy for paleontologists and kids to recognize.
The skull and skeleton of Bistahieversor were collected in the first paleontological excavation from a federal wilderness area, and the specimen was airlifted from the badlands by a helicopter operated by the Air Wing of the New Mexico Army National Guard. “Bistahieversor sealeyi is the first valid new genus and species of tyrannosaur to be named from western North America in over 30 years,” says Williamson.
Tyrannosaurs are best known from 65-75 million year old sediments from the Rocky Mountain region of North America. Bistahieversor provides important insights into the evolutionary history of the group.