Dino card No. 1211 of 2,027

Moros

Say it: MOR-oss

Name means: “embodiment of impending doom”1

Ate: MeatTyrannosaursLate Cretaceous

Moros was a tiny, fast-running cousin of the giant T. rex. It lived about 96 million years ago in what is now Utah, USA. Despite its scary name, it was only about the size of a modern human!1 2

Lived

100 to 94 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Emery County, Utah, USA1

Food

Meat3

Weight

up to 78 kg1

estimated from the hind limb

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 2.5 big dogs

as heavy as 16 watermelons

How big was Moros compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Moros is the oldest Cretaceous tyrannosauroid ever found in North America, pushing the record back by about 15 million years.1

It weighed only about 78 kilograms (172 pounds), making it one of the smallest tyrannosauroids of the Cretaceous.1

The fossil is a partial hind leg from an animal that was nearly full-grown at 6 to 7 years old.1

Moros had long, slender legs built for running fast, a very different body plan from later giant tyrannosaurs.1

Its name comes from Greek and Latin words meaning 'doom' and 'intrepid', referring to the arrival of tyrannosaurs in North America.1

Moros lived in a coastal mudflat environment about 96 million years ago.1

AI-made picture of Moros — An AI-made picture of how Moros might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Moros
Named by: Zanno et al. 20194
Group: Tyrannosaurs
Family / clade: Tyrannosauroidea4
Classification: Theropoda > Tyrannosauroidea4
Age of the rocks: 100 to 94 million years (Cenomanian)4
Rock formations: Cedar Mountain4
Countries: USA4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Moros was named by paleontologist Lindsay Zanno and her team in 2019. The fossils were found in the Cedar Mountain Formation in Utah, USA.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how fast Moros grew or how it is related to later giant tyrannosaurs.1

Where the facts come from

Diminutive fleet-footed tyrannosauroid narrows the 70-million-year gap in the North American fossil record | Communications Biology (nature.com)
Diminutive fleet-footed tyrannosauroid narrows the 70-million-year gap in the North American fossil record (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Moros in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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