Temporal range: Late Cretaceous (Campanian), ~76.6–75.1 Ma
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Skeletal mount, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Clade:
Dinosauria
Clade:
Saurischia
Clade:
Theropoda
Clade:
†Eutyrannosauria
Family:
†Tyrannosauridae
Subfamily:
†Albertosaurinae
Genus:
†Gorgosaurus Lambe, 1914
Type species
†Gorgosaurus libratus
Lambe, 1914
Synonyms
List
Deinodon horridus? Leidy, 1856
Laelaps falculus? Cope, 1876
Laelaps hazenianus? Cope, 1876
Laelaps incrassatus Cope, 1876
Dryptosaurus kenabekides? Hay, 1899
Gorgosaurus sternbergi Matthew & Brown, 1923
Albertosaurus libratus (Lambe, 1914)
Gorgosaurus (/ˌɡɔːrɡəˈsɔːrəs/GOR-gə-SOR-əs; lit.'dreadful lizard') is a genus of tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in western North America during the Late Cretaceous Period (Campanian), between about 76.6 and 75.1 million years ago. Fossil remains have been found in the Canadian province of Alberta and the U.S. state of Montana. Paleontologists recognize only the type species, G. libratus, although other species have been erroneously referred to the genus.
Like most known tyrannosaurids, Gorgosaurus was a large bipedal predator, measuring 8–9 metres (26–30 ft) in length and 2–3 metric tons (2.2–3.3 short tons) in body mass. Dozens of large, sharp teeth lined its jaws, while its two-fingered forelimbs were comparatively small. Gorgosaurus was most closely related to Albertosaurus, and more distantly related to the larger Tyrannosaurus. Gorgosaurus and Albertosaurus are extremely similar, distinguished mainly by subtle differences in the teeth and skull bones. Some experts consider G. libratus to be a species of Albertosaurus; this would make Gorgosaurus a junior synonym of that genus.
Gorgosaurus lived in a lush floodplain environment along the edge of an inland sea. It was an apex predator, preying upon abundant ceratopsids and hadrosaurs. In some areas, Gorgosaurus coexisted with another tyrannosaurid, Daspletosaurus torosus. Although these animals were roughly the same size, there is some evidence of niche differentiation between the two. Gorgosaurus is the best-represented tyrannosaurid in the fossil record, known from dozens of specimens. These plentiful remains have allowed scientists to investigate its ontogeny, life history and other aspects of its biology.
comparatively small. Gorgosaurus was most closely related to Albertosaurus, and more distantly related to the larger Tyrannosaurus. Gorgosaurus and Albertosaurus...
Lawrence Lambe named Gorgosaurus libratus, "balanced fierce lizard", in 1914). A second significant find attributed to Gorgosaurus was made in 1942, in...
differentiation in Daspletosaurus and Gorgosaurus. Dale Russell hypothesized that the more lightly built and more common Gorgosaurus may have preyed on the abundant...
exception. This skull, CMNH 7541, was originally classified as a species of Gorgosaurus (G. lancensis) by Charles W. Gilmore in 1946. In 1988, the specimen was...
Albertosaurinae was recovered as including only Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus. Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus are kept separate by most classifications, as should be...
incrassatus. Because he had identified Gorgosaurus with Albertosaurus, in 1970, Russell also renamed Gorgosaurus sternbergi (Matthew & Brown 1922) into...
were also named as new species and assigned to the North American genus Gorgosaurus as G. lancinator and G. novojilovi, respectively. All three of these...
since Deinodon and Gorgosaurus cannot be distinguished, they should be synonymized with D. horridus as the valid name for "Gorgosaurus" skeletons. Additionally...
Struggling, the Edmontonia gets back up and injures the Gorgosaurus with her shoulder spikes. The Gorgosaurus heads back to its cave, fatally wounded with a broken...
tyrannosaurids ranged from the 9 meters (30 feet) Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus to Tyrannosaurus, which exceeded 12 meters (39 feet) in length and may...
imperiosus. 1914 Lawrence Lambe described the new genus and species Gorgosaurus libratus. Barnum Brown emended Cope's "Dinodontidae" to "Deinodontidae"...
have been reported from various Late Cretaceous tyrannosaurids (such as Gorgosaurus, Tarbosaurus and Tyrannosaurus) on parts of the body where Yutyrannus...
Teratophoneus, and theropods of Albertosaurinae such as Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus, all being included under the same family of Tyrannosauridae and not...
specimens, from left to right, are Hypacrosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Lambeosaurus, Gorgosaurus (both in the background), Tyrannosaurus, and Triceratops....
Struthiomimus; fellow duckbills Gryposaurus and Corythosaurus; tyrannosaurids Gorgosaurus and Daspletosaurus; and armored Edmontonia, Euoplocephalus and Dyoplosaurus...
based on the 2003 study by Philip J. Currie. A subsequent analysis of Gorgosaurus ontogeny by Voris et al, 2021 found that Philip Currie's initial identification...
feature that the dromaeosaurid also shared with tyrannosaurids such as Gorgosaurus, which was also analyzed in said study alongside these smaller theropods...
defend itself against predators like Albertosaurus, Daspletosaurus, and Gorgosaurus using a heavy club at the end of its tail. Among the ankylosaurids, Euoplocephalus...
Tongue of the Prince Creek Formation and were first referred to the genus Gorgosaurus. Later, after the locale was understood to be younger than previously...
a feature that the theropod also shared with tyrannosaurids such as Gorgosaurus, which was also analyzed in said study alongside these smaller theropods...
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