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Description
After almost a month of pressure, especially from the death of my fish (may they rest in piece), I have finally done the newly-described Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis a little late to the party.

This long lost relative of Tyrannosaurus rex roamed the south of Laramidia (western North America) around 72.7-70.9 million years ago, slightly earlier than its more famous 68 million-year-old cousin. Whereas T. rex lived with and hunted other popular names such as Triceratops and Edmontosaurus, T. mcraeensis' roommates were a somewhat different bunch, including the former's earlier relative Sierraceratops and an unknown species of the titanosaur Alamosaurus possibly a precursor to A. sanjuanensis.

The remains of this only recently-described theropod were first mentioned in 1984 as belonging to T. rex and then described two years later. A grandiose 28 years later would this new species be described by Sebastian G. Dalman and colleagues, with its specific name referencing the McRae Group that comprises the Hall Lake Formation where it was found.

Although known from a partial amount of data, T. mcraeenis has several known physical differences from T. rex. It seems to be more lightly-built than the tyrant lizard king, with a skeletal anatomy similar to the related Tarbosaurus and Zhuchengtyrannus from Asia. Its skull is also narrower, has blunter teeth, a less prominent chin and postorbital crests, and a shallower lower jaw, suggesting a weaker bite force. The size of the tyrannosaur is somewhat vague, again known partially, but it could’ve been around twelves meters long and seven tonnes in weight, somewhat smaller than T. rex. Aside from being its closest relative, it is currently unknown if both Tyrannosaurus species were split cladogenetic lineages in the same genus, or if T. mcraeensis anagenetically evolved into T. rex over millions of years, although Dalman et al.'s paper suggests the former.

Description
After almost a month of pressure, especially from the death of my fish (may they rest in piece), I have finally done the newly-described Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis a little late to the party.

This long lost relative of Tyrannosaurus rex roamed the south of Laramidia (western North America) around 72.7-70.9 million years ago, slightly earlier than its more famous 68 million-year-old cousin. Whereas T. rex lived with and hunted other popular names such as Triceratops and Edmontosaurus, T. mcraeensis' roommates were a somewhat different bunch, including the former's earlier relative Sierraceratops and an unknown species of the titanosaur Alamosaurus possibly a precursor to A. sanjuanensis.

The remains of this only recently-described theropod were first mentioned in 1984 as belonging to T. rex and then described two years later. A grandiose 28 years later would this new species be described by Sebastian G. Dalman and colleagues, with its specific name referencing the McRae Group that comprises the Hall Lake Formation where it was found.

Although known from a partial amount of data, T. mcraeenis has several known physical differences from T. rex. It seems to be more lightly-built than the tyrant lizard king, with a skeletal anatomy similar to the related Tarbosaurus and Zhuchengtyrannus from Asia. Its skull is also narrower, has blunter teeth, a less prominent chin and postorbital crests, and a shallower lower jaw, suggesting a weaker bite force. The size of the tyrannosaur is somewhat vague, again known partially, but it could’ve been around twelves meters long and seven tonnes in weight, somewhat smaller than T. rex. Aside from being its closest relative, it is currently unknown if both Tyrannosaurus species were split cladogenetic lineages in the same genus, or if T. mcraeensis anagenetically evolved into T. rex over millions of years, although Dalman et al.'s paper suggests the former.