New dinosaur discovery may be the closest relative to Tyrannosaurus rex, scientists say

Paleontologists have discovered a new species of dinosaur that could be the closest-known relative of the famed Tyrannosaurus rex.

Paleontologists have discovered a new species of dinosaur that could be the closest-known relative of the famed Tyrannosaurus rex.

The jaw of the dinosaur was found in 1983 by civilians boating in the Elephant Butte reservoir in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Spencer Lucas, curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, told ABC News. After boaters alerted the museum to their finding, a subsequent search of the area by paleontologists uncovered additional dinosaur bones, and another dig in the 1990s led to the findings of even more, Lucas said.

The scientists initially assumed that the fossils they found, the jaw and part of the skull, belonged to Tyrannosaurus rex, the famed large theropod dinosaur that existed 66 million to 68 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period. But in the last 20 years, further study of the jaw indicated that it was a new species entirely, Lucas said.

The new species has since been dubbed Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis, according to a paper published Thursday in Scientific Reports.