Albertosaurus

Albertosaurus is a typical tyrannosaurid that lived in North America 70 million years ago. He was found in Canadian province Alberta.He was bipedal predator with massive head and tiny arms.A top predator, he was a cousin for Tyrannosaurus that lived few million years later.

Albertosaurus was smaller than other tyrranosaurids aproaching 8 meters long and weighing 2 tons. Albertosaurus was balanced predator so he was able to reach speeds of 25 kilometers per hour.

Albertosaurus had typical massive tyrannosaurids head on short neck. His skull was about 1 meter long. Wide openings in the skull (fenestrae) reduced the weight of the head while also providing space for muscle attachment and sensory organs. Its long jaws contained more than 60 banana-shaped teeth; larger tyrannosaurids possessed fewer teeth.

Albertosaurus probably hunted hadrosaurs, the duck-billed dinosaurs, among other prey. Scientists believe that these dinosaurs may have hunted in packs.

Although there has been much discussion about whether tyrannosaurids such as Albertosaurus were predators or scavengers, it is actually likely that they utilized both feeding strategies, capturing live prey when possible but scavenging if they happened on to a carcass.

Scientific classification of Albertosaurus has been revised several times and may change further as more specimens are discovered. For example, Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus may be two names given to the same animal, or they may be different enough to require their distinct names