Daspletosaurus

Daspletosaurus was a heavily built tyrannosaurid that stalked the floodplains of North America around 76 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous. Reaching roughly nine metres in length and weighing over three tonnes, it was noticeably stockier than its contemporary Gorgosaurus. Daspletosaurus featured an unusually robust skull packed with thick, bone-crushing teeth, indicating it was well equipped to hunt tough, armoured ceratopsian horned dinosaurs. Several skulls bear unhealed and healed bite marks inflicted by other tyrannosaurs, providing tangible evidence of intense face-biting combat between individuals.

It shows evidence of facial bite wounds from intraspecific combat, some of which had healed.

Where and when

Daspletosaurus lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 77 to 74 million years ago (Campanian age). Its remains come from Canada and United States, in the Dinosaur Park Formation.

The numbers

Length 9 m (estimates run from 8.5 to 9.5 m). Mass about 3.1 t. Hip height about 2.9 m. That is 5.3 human-lengths, or 0.8 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from near-complete skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

Compare Daspletosaurus with a bus Place on the timeline