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 The two-legged beast was estimated to stretch more than 30 feet
long and weigh more than 3 tons. It helps fill a gap in the fossil
record of big North American predators between earlier killer beasts
and the arrival of the group including T. rex. It wasn't related to
that famous beast.
Researchers from the Field Museum in Chicago and the North Carolina
Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh announced the finding Friday
in the journal Nature Communications. They named the beast Siats
meekerorum, (SEE'-otts MEE-ke-ROH'-ruhm) after a man-eating monster
of legend from Utah's Ute tribe, and a family that has donated to
the Field Museum.
The specimen discovered in 2008 in Utah was a juvenile. Researchers
estimated the adult size by extrapolating from the recovered
fossils, which included bones of the back, tail, hip, foot and shin.
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Online:
Nature Communications:
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/ [Associated
Press; MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer]
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