Scientists Say A 'Teen Rex' Fossil Is Actually A Different Species

Nanotyrannus lancensis was half the height of a Tyrannosaurus rex and just one-tenth of its body mass, leading it to be misidentified as a "teen rex" on multiple occasions.

Recent research may have just settled a decades-long debate over whether a species that looked like a miniature Tyrannosaurus rex once inhabited the Earth.

Paleontologists have long debated whether a fossil found in Montana in the 1940s and several similar specimens uncovered since then belonged to a juvenile T. rex or a separate species known as Nanotyrannus lancensis . Now, a paper published in Nature claims to have an answer: “ Nanotyrannus is real.”

The Enduring Debate About The ‘Teen Rex’

In 1942, paleontologists in Montana uncovered a dinosaur skull that they initially believed belonged to a type