New Mexico is known for Aztec ruins and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Paleontologists Thomas Williamson of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Thomas Carr of Carthage College is now bringing a new superstar to the state.

Bistahieversor sealeyi (pronounced: bistah-he-ee-versor see-lee-eye) is a new species of tyrannosaur discovered in the Bisti/De-na-zin Wilderness of New Mexico.

The skull and skeleton of Bistahieversor were collected in the first paleontological excavation from a federal wilderness area, and the specimen was airlifted from the badlands by a helicopter operated by the Air Wing of the New Mexico Army National Guard. "Bistahieversor sealeyi is the first valid new genus and species of tyrannosaur to be named from western North America in over 30 years," says Williamson.

Tyrannosaurs are best known from 65-75 million year old sediments from the Rocky Mountain region of North America. Bistahieversor provides important insights into the evolutionary history of the group.

"Bistahieversor is important because it demonstrates that the deep snout and powerful jaws of advanced tyrannosaurs like T. rex were special adaptations that evolved around 110 million years ago, after the eastern and western halves of North America were separated by a shallow sea," says Carr.

Bistahieversor was different from other tyrannosauroids in having an extra opening above its eye, a complex joint at its "forehead," and a keel along its lower jaw; it also had more teeth than its distant relative T. rex.

"The skull of the holotype specimen (NMMNH P-27469) of Bistahieversor sealeyi on display in the Cretaceous Seacoast exhibit at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. (Credit: Photo by David Baccadutre, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.)"

Source: Society of Vertebrate Paleontology