Canadian Scientists Give Vicious Name To Newly Discovered T.Rex Relative

Scientists have discovered a dinosaur that is a close relation of Tyrannosaurus rex and is nicknamed the “reaper of death.”

The animal was 8m (26ft) long and a relative of the T.rex, researchers said.

It is called “Thanatotheristes degrootorum” – the first word is Greek for “reaper of death”. It is also named after John and Sandra De Groot, the couple who found the fossils on the shore of Bow River in Alberta, Canada.

The Discovery was made by a team of researchers from the University of Calgary  and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology .

It is the oldest tyrannosaur species ever found in Canada.

Darla Zelenitsky, assistant professor of dinosaur palaeobiology at the University of Calgary, told the AFP news agency : “We chose a name that embodies what this tyrannosaur was as the only known large apex predator of its time in Canada, the reaper of death.”