To date, eco-evolutionary dynamics in the ascent of tyrannosauroids to top predator roles have been obscured by a 70-million-year gap in the North American (NA) record. Here we report discovery of the oldest Cretaceous NA tyrannosauroid, extending the lineage by ~15 million years. The new taxon—
Moros intrepidus
gen. et sp. nov.—is represented by a hind limb from an individual nearing skeletal maturity at 6–7 years. With a ~1.2-m limb length and 78-kg mass,
M
.
intrepidus
ranks among the smallest Cretaceous tyrannosauroids, restricting the window for rapid mass increases preceding the appearance of colossal eutyrannosaurs. Phylogenetic affinity with Asian taxa supports transcontinental interchange as the means by which iconic biotas of the terminal Cretaceous were established in NA. The unexpectedly diminutive and highly cursorial bauplan of NA’s earliest Cretaceous tyrannosauroids reveals an evolutionary strategy reliant on speed and small size during their prolonged stint as marginal predators.
The vertebrate fauna of the Late Cretaceous Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation has been studied for nearly three decades, yet the fossil-rich unit continues to produce new information about life in western North America approximately 97 million years ago. Here we report on the composition of the Cliffs of Insanity (COI) microvertebrate locality, a newly sampled site containing perhaps one of the densest concentrations of microvertebrate fossils yet discovered in the Mussentuchit Member. The COI locality preserves osteichthyan, lissamphibian, testudinatan, mesoeucrocodylian, dinosaurian, metatherian, and trace fossil remains and is among the most taxonomically rich microvertebrate localities in the Mussentuchit Member. To better refine taxonomic identifications of isolated theropod dinosaur teeth, we used quantitative analyses of taxonomically comprehensive databases of theropod tooth measurements, adding new data on theropod tooth morphodiversity in this poorly understood interval. We further provide the first descriptions of tyrannosauroid premaxillary teeth and document the earliest North American record of adocid remains, extending the appearance of this ancestrally Asian clade by 5 million years in western North America and supporting studies of pre-Cenomaninan Laurasian faunal exchange across Beringia. The overabundance of mesoeucrocodylian remains at the COI locality produces a comparatively low measure of relative biodiversity when compared to other microvertebrate sites in the Mussentuchit Member using both raw and subsampling methods. Much more microvertebrate research is necessary to understand the roles of changing ecology and taphonomy that may be linked to transgression of the Western Interior Seaway or microhabitat variation.
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