Gorgosaurus sternbergi

W. D. Matthew & Barnum Brown, 1923, Preliminary notices of skeletons and skulls of Deinodontidae from the Cretaceous of Alberta, American Museum Novitates 89, pp. 1-10 : 7-8

3.- Gorgosaurus sternbergi , new species.

Standing skeleton. Belly River- formation, Red Deer River, Alberta. This is a very finely preserved skeleton, No. 5664 , obtained by Mr. C. H. Sternberg in 1917 and purchased by the Museum . It is of smaller size and more slender proportions than G. libratus. The jaws are much less massive and the muzzle is more slender, the maxilla more elongate and shallow, the orbital fenestra more circular. The tibia is considerably longer than the femur. These and various other differences of proportion might be regarded as age characters in a single species and in support of this is the fact that in this skeleton the pelvic bones are still separate or partly so. There is nothing else to indicate immaturity.

This is the most complete of the deinodont skeletons in our collections. The tip of the tail, beyond the 24th caudal, is restored, also the left radius, metacarpal i and phalanx ii2; the left ribs are restored. The abdominal rib basket is nearly complete.

The pose of this skeleton ( Fig. 3 ) is that of a standing animal in as upright a position as the Gorgosaurus would normally assume.

Figures

Fig. 3. Restoration of Gorgosaurus bv E. C. Christman, illustrating the pose of skeleton, Fig. 2. The animal is represented as chasing a small herd. of duckbill dinosaurs (Corythosaurus) which take refuge in the water.