Tarbosaurus

Tarbosaurus was the undisputed apex predator of Late Cretaceous Asia, inhabiting the humid river floodplains of the Nemegt Formation around 70 million years ago. Reaching up to eleven and a half metres in length and over four tonnes in mass, it was nearly as large as its close North American cousin Tyrannosaurus rex. Tarbosaurus possessed a narrower skull with less binocular vision, relying heavily on a sophisticated sense of smell and hearing. Its jaws were rigid and built to handle the struggling movements of massive prey like sauropods and duck-billed hadrosaurs.

It possessed the smallest forelimbs relative to body size of any known tyrannosaurid.

Where and when

Tarbosaurus lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 71 to 68 million years ago (Maastrichtian age). Its remains come from Mongolia and China, in the Nemegt Formation.

The numbers

Length 11 m (estimates run from 10 to 12 m). Mass about 4.7 t. Hip height about 3.4 m. That is 6.4 human-lengths, or 0.96 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from near-complete skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

Compare Tarbosaurus with a bus Place on the timeline