ScienceShot: T. rex Had a Southern Cousin

For the first time, scientists have found evidence that the ancestors of Tyrannosaurus rex roamed all over the world, instead of just in the Northern Hemisphere, as previously thought. A partial fossilized adult hip bone found in a place called, appropriately, Dinosaur Cove in southern Australia is much smaller but "almost identical" to the anatomy of the great beast, its discovers report tomorrow Science. The new species, tentatively identified as NMV P186069, lived about 110 million years ago, or 40 million years before T. Rex first appeared. If so, it fits in with the idea that the basic characteristics of T. Rex—including its powerful legs, short forearms and huge jaws—appeared early, while its size grew as it became a more successful predator.