The ‘Fearsome Lizard’ was first described by Palaeontologist Lawrence Morris Lambe in 1914 in Alberta, Canada, it has since been discovered throughout Montana and New Mexico. As part of the Tyrannosaur family, Gorgosaurus shares many features with its larger cousin including, huge teeth that are serrated on one side, a massive skull, small arms and a powerfully built body. In fact the only real difference is in their size (Gorgosaurus is about half the size of a fully grown T-rex) and the small bony plate on the top of a Gorgosaurus head. Information on the original fossil skeleton that this cast has come from... This particular speciman is not only one of the most complete tyrannosaurids ever found, but one of the most complete and spectacular dinosaurs ever unearthed! Not only does it contain features never seen on any other dinosaur (such as its complete eye socket and bely ribs), but almost every bone on its body tells a story, making this particular dinosaur extremely desirable. These features include. Tail: A sreies of fractured vertebrea that have partialy healed. This indicate perhaps a struglle were another dinsoaur has stood on the Gorgosaurus tail. Gastralia (belly ribs): These small bones are almost never found with any sort of tyrannosaur, much less a set like these. They were used to help them animal breathe but also protects its soft underside from damage from struggling prey or even a fall. Many of the Gastralia on this specimen show a lot of damage, testament to how usefully they would have been when the animal was alive. Scapula (collarbone). A perfect example of how hard a life these dinosaurs had. While the right scapula is near perfect, you can clealry see a sever deformity on the left collarbone where it has been broken and healed. The hiuge mass of bone was used by the creatures body to stabilise the injury (much the same way we use a cast) while it healed. Legs: The femur and fibula show severe damage, in fact the femur was so damaged, a small piece of the bone simply broke off and never reattached. This damage was either caused by a fall or from a high impact, possibly by the armoured, ball like tail of an Ankylosaur. Skull: Not only was this Gorgosaurus suffering from a terrible, bone eating disease that was slowly eating away at its jaw and causing it to lose some of its teeth, it is also one of the only dinosaurs known that was suffering from a brain tumour which clealry showed up when palaeontologists did a C.T scan of the skulls interior. Lifestyle: All of these injuries tell us something very important. Not only did the Gorgosaurus live with a lot of pain, but at some stage it had been cared for. Lone tigers die quickly from sever injuries from starvation or predation from another tiger. Lions however can often survive a similar injury as they live in a pack society where they can be cared for. A healed tyrannosaurid means these dinsoaurs most likely lved in family pack (or flocks) and looked after their injuried members. With dagger-like teeth, a massive head, powerful body and clawed hands and feet, Gorgosaurus would have been one of the most dangerous animals during the Cretaceous. Though it clearly resembles Tyrannosaurus rex, it had a much slimmer build and longer legs suggesting it was capable of sprinting after its prey. As they also had an exceptional sense of smell and we have solid evidence of them living in packs, the best current description for these animals is they were a lot like wolves…smart, loyal and very, very dangerous!