Dino card No. 1743 of 2,015

Tarbosaurus

Say it: TAR-buh-SOR-us

Name means: “alarming lizard”1

Ate: MeatTyrannosaursLate Cretaceous

Tarbosaurus was a huge, meat-eating dinosaur that lived in Asia. It was like a cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex, with a big head and tiny arms. It was one of the top predators of its time.1

Lived

90 to 66 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Mongolia, China, and Russia3 1

Food

Meat1

Length

10 to 12 m1 2

about

Weight

4.5 tonnes to 5 tonnes1

Height

3 to 5 m1 2

at the hips

Artist's life restoration of Tarbosaurus — How Tarbosaurus may have looked, by GgfHghf. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Scientists still argue about colours and details.

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

Tarbosaurus had the smallest arms compared to its body size of all tyrannosaurids, with tiny two-fingered hands.1

It had a special locking mechanism in its jaw and about sixty large teeth.1

Tarbosaurus lived in a humid floodplain with rivers, forests, and plains, and it was the top predator there.1

Scientists think Tarbosaurus might be the same as Tyrannosaurus, but most now call it Tarbosaurus bataar.1

Some fossils from China were once thought to be a small dinosaur called Shanshanosaurus, but they are probably baby Tarbosaurus.1

Tarbosaurus is known from dozens of fossil specimens, including complete skulls and skeletons.1

Myth buster

Myth: Tarbosaurus is just a copy of Tyrannosaurus rex.

Truth: Tarbosaurus is a close relative, but it lived in Asia and had its own special features, like a different jaw lock and even smaller arms.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Tarbosaurus
Named by: Maleev 19553
Group: Tyrannosaurs
Family / clade: Tyrannosauridae3
Classification: Theropoda > Tyrannosauroidea > Tyrannosauridae3
Age of the rocks: 90 to 66 million years (Coniacian to Maastrichtian)3
Rock formations: Nemegt, Udurchukan, Yuliangzi3
Countries: Mongolia, China, Russia3
Fossil records: 56 in the Paleobiology Database3
Also known as: Jenghizkhan, Maleevosaurus, Shanshanosaurus (older names now counted as the same animal)3
Discovery: Soviet paleontologist Evgeny Maleev named Tarbosaurus in 1955, based on fossils found in Mongolia in 1948 and 1949.3 2
Still debated: Scientists still debate whether Tarbosaurus is its own genus or actually a species of Tyrannosaurus.1

Where the facts come from

Tarbosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
New Carnivorous Dinosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia (naturalhistory.si.edu)
Tarbosaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@dinowiki.app and we will fix it.