Tarbosaurus

Tarbosaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian), ~70 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Skeleton on exhibit in Maryland Science Center
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	Theropoda
Family:	†Tyrannosauridae
Subfamily:	†Tyrannosaurinae
Clade:	†Tyrannosaurini
Genus:	†Tarbosaurus Maleev, 1955b
Type species
†Tarbosaurus bataar Maleev, 1955a
Synonyms
Genus synonymy Shanshanosaurus Dong, 1977 Maleevosaurus Carpenter, 1992 Jenghizkhan Olshevsky, 1995 Species synonymy Tyrannosaurus bataar Maleev, 1955a Gorgosaurus novojilovi Maleev, 1955b Tarbosaurus efremovi Maleev, 1955b Gorgosaurus lancinator Maleev, 1955b Deinodon novojilovi (Maleev, 1955b) Kuhn, 1965 Deinodon lancinator (Maleev, 1955b) Kuhn, 1965 Aublysodon lancinator (Maleev, 1955b) Charig, 1967 Aublysodon novojilovi (Maleev, 1955b) Charig, 1967 Shanshanosaurus huoyanshanensis Dong, 1977 Tyrannosaurus efremovi (Maleev, 1955b) Rozhdestvensky, 1977 Tarbosaurus novojilovi (Maleev, 1955b) Olshevsky, 1978 Aublysodon huoyanshanensis (Dong, 1977) Paul, 1988a Albertosaurus novojilovi (Maleev, 1955b) Mader & Bradley, 1989 Maleevosaurus novojilovi (Maleev, 1955b) Carpenter, 1992 Jenghizkhan bataar (Maleev, 1955a) Olshevsky, 1995 Tyrannosaurus novojilovi (Maleev, 1955b) Glut, 1997 ?Raptorex kriegsteini Sereno et al., 2009

Tarbosaurus (/ˌtɑːrbəˈsɔːrəs/ TAR-bə-SOR-əs; meaning "alarming lizard") is a genus of large tyrannosaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous epoch, about 70 million years ago (Maastrichtian age). It contains the single type species: Tarbosaurus bataar, which is known from the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia, with more fragmentary remains found further afield in the Subashi Formation of China. Tarbosaurus is represented by dozens of fossil specimens, including several complete skulls and skeletons. These remains have allowed studies focusing on its phylogeny, skull mechanics, and brain structure. Further fossil remains have been reported from other geologic formations of Asia, however, these remains are fragmentary and can not be confidentially assigned to Tarbosaurus or the type species.

Like most known tyrannosaurids, Tarbosaurus was a large bipedal predator, with the type specimen measuring approximately 10 metres (33 ft) long, 3 metres (9.8 ft) tall at the hips, and weighing up to 4.5–5 metric tons (5.0–5.5 short tons). It had a unique locking mechanism in its jaw, equipped with about sixty large teeth, and the smallest arms relative to body size of all tyrannosaurids, renowned for their disproportionately tiny, two-fingered hands.

Although many species have been named, modern paleontologists recognize only one species, T. bataar. Some experts see this species as an Asian representative of the North American genus Tyrannosaurus, which would make the genus Tarbosaurus redundant. Tarbosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, if not synonymous, are considered to be very closely related genera. Alioramus, also from Mongolia, has previously been thought by some authorities to be the closest relative of Tarbosaurus, though this has since been disproven with the discovery of Qianzhousaurus and the description of the tyrannosaurine tribe Alioramini.

Tarbosaurus lived in a humid floodplain dominated by deserts, forests and plains, and criss-crossed by river channels. In this environment, it was an apex predator preying on other large dinosaurs, like hadrosaurids, such as Saurolophus and Barsboldia, and sauropods, such as Nemegtosaurus.