Let the record show: In 2025, one of paleontology’s oldest debates was settled. A second study in as many months confirms — using an independent and novel analysis — that the the tiny tyrannosaur Nanotyrannus is indeed its own species and not a young T. rex.
A mysterious fossil skull of a small, sharp-toothed dinosaur, unearthed in the 1940s, is at the heart of the controversy. Researchers have debated for decades what kind of dinosaur the skull belonged to. Until this year, the consensus was that it was a teenage T. rex, but some researchers argued it was a separate species, a type of miniature tyrannosaur dubbed Nanotyrannus.
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