What is a nanotyrannus? What scientists recently discovered about the much

A new study may have just ended a decades-long dinosaur debate. Research published this week in Nature suggests that fossils once thought to be teenage Tyrannosaurus rex may actually belong to a completely separate, and much smaller, species: the Nanotyrannus lancensis.

For decades, paleontologists have argued over whether these small-bodied tyrannosaurs were adolescent T. rexes or a different species entirely.

According to National Geographic , the mystery began in the 1940s, when a slim skull was unearthed in Montana. It wasn’t until 1988 the fossil was classified as Nanotyrannus lancensis, and ever since, scientists have been split. Paleontologists have debated whether the small, lean fossils of tyrannosaurs are a teenage version of the iconic T. rex, or an entirely different spec