Daspletosaur Tyrannosaurid Dinosaur Tooth from Montana

Description: Daspletosaurus is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in western North America during the Late Cretaceous Period between 80 and 73 million years ago. Fossils of the only named species, Daspletosaurus torosus, are from Alberta, Canada, but with other putitive species from Montana and New Mexico. Daspletosaurus may be the most species-rich genus of the Tyrannosauridae family. Current taxonomy has Daspletosaurus closely related to the much larger and more recent Tyrannosaurus.

Daspletosaurus was an apex predator that putatively fed on large dinosaurs like the ceratopsid Centrosaurus and the hadrosaurid Hypacrosaurus. Daspletosaurus likely coexisted with another tyrannosaurid, Gorgosaurus. Daspletosaurus fossils are rarer than those of other tyrannosaurids, enabling differential analysis of the comparative biology of the genera, including social behavior, diet and life history. Adults may have attained some 8 to 9 meters (26–30 ft) of length, and up to 2.5 tonnes metric of weight. Daspletosaurus shared the same morphology as other tyrannosaurids, but had the longest forelimbs.