Gov. Josh Stein announced on Thursday the discovery of a new tyrannosaur species, Nanotyrannus, at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences on Thursday.
The discovery, made in collaboration with North Carolina State University, is based on the “Dueling Dinosaurs” fossil, which was found in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana.
“This is the biggest dinosaur discovery of the decade, and I am proud that it is happening right here in North Carolina,” said Stein.
“Being able to watch these discoveries unfold in real time, in a real laboratory, is a remarkable experience for visitors to the Museum of Natural Sciences,” said Pamela Cashwell, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Paleontologists at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences’ SECU DinoLab have been studying the 67-million-year-old specimens since the museum acquired them in 2020.
The Dueling Dinosaurs fossil contains two dinosaurs preserved together in a potential predator-prey encounter: a Triceratops and what was originally thought to be a juvenile tyrannosaur.
The tyrannosaur is now confirmed to be a fully grown Nanotyrannus lancensis, challenging the previous belief that it was a teenage Tyrannosaurus rex.
This finding overturns a widely accepted scientific consensus on tyrannosaurs that had persisted for more than three decades.
Dr. Lindsay Zanno, head of paleontology at the Museum of Natural Sciences, and Dr. James Napoli, anatomist at Stony Brook University, co-authored the study appearing in the journal Nature.
“This fossil doesn’t just settle the debate. It flips decades of T. rex research on its head,” said Dr. Zanno.The confirmation of Nanotyrannus suggests higher predator diversity in the last million years of the Cretaceous than previously thought.
The discovery of Nanotyrannus provides new insights into the diversity of tyrannosaurs and the ecosystems they inhabited, offering a fresh perspective on dinosaur evolution and extinction.
©2025 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/LH3JSJEF3VBLRJLJQESEAG34AM.png)
