| Moros | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Diagram showing known remains | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Clade: | †Pantyrannosauria |
| Genus: | †Moros Zannoet al., 2019[1] |
| Species: | †M. intrepidus |
| Binomial name | |
| †Moros intrepidus Zannoet al., 2019[1] | |
Moros is a genus of smalltyrannosauroidtheropoddinosaur that lived during theLate Cretaceous period in what is nowUtah. It contains a single species,M. intrepidus.[1]Moros represents one of the earliest known diagnostic tyrannosauroid material fromNorth America.[1]
Moros was first discovered at the Stormy Theropod site located inEmery County in the U.S. state ofUtah.Palaeontologists had been researching the area for ten years when, in 2013, limb bones were seen jutting out of a hillside, prompting the excavation.[2] The bones were described as of a new species in February, 2019.[3] The type species,Moros intrepidus, was named and described byLindsay E. Zanno, Ryan T. Tucker, Aurore Canoville, Haviv M. Avrahami, Terry A. Gates, and Peter J. Makovicky. The generic name is derived from theGreek termMoros (an embodiment of impending doom), in reference to the establishment of the tyrannosauroid lineage in North America that would soon dominate the continent by the end of the Cretaceous. Thespecific name is theLatin wordintrepidus ("intrepid"), referring to the hypothesized dispersal of tyrannosauroids from Asia throughout North America following the arrival ofMoros.[1]
Theholotype specimen,NCSM 33392, was found in the lower Mussentuchit Member of theCedar Mountain Formation dating from theCenomanianage. The layer has a maximimum age of 96.4 million years. The holotype consists of a right leg, specifically the thighbone, shinbone, second and fourth metatarsal, and the third and fourth phalanx of the fourth toe.Lines of arrested growth, or LAGs, indicate that it represents a subadult individual of six or seven years old, nearing its maximum size. Additionally, two premaxillary teeth were referred to the species, specimens NCSM 33393 and NCSM 33276.[1]
Moros was a small-bodied,cursorial tyrannosauroid with an estimated leg length of 1.2 m (3.9 ft) and a body mass of 78 kg (172 lb).[1] The foot bones ofMoros were extremely slender, with metatarsal proportions found to be more similar toornithomimids than to other Late Cretaceous tyrannosauroids.[1]
In their 2019 phylogenetic analyses, Zanno and colleagues recoveredMoros as a basal pantyrannosaurian alongside Asian taxa from the middle of the Cretaceous, such asXiongguanlong andTimurlengia.[1] This phylogenetic affinity with Asian basal tyrannosauroids suggests thatMoros was part of a transcontinental exchange between thebiotas of Asia and North America during the mid-Cretaceous that is well-documented in other taxa.[1]
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