Tyrannosaurus

tyrant lizard

• tyrannos · Greek · tyrant
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name combines the Greek words for "tyrant" and "lizard". Henry Fairfield Osborn chose it in 1905 to convey the animal's immense size and power, as if it were a king or tyrant among reptiles. The type species is Tyrannosaurus rex, where "rex" is Latin for "king".

Named by

Osborn

Year named

1905

Period

Late Cretaceous

Stage

Maastrichtian

Found in

Western North America, including the Hell Creek Formation (Montana, USA) and the Lance Formation (Wyoming, USA)

Valid genus. It is a large theropod in the family Tyrannosauridae. Its type species is T. rex. Some other names, such as Dynamosaurus, are now considered synonyms of it.