Newly discovered dino may be tyrannosaur ‘missing link’

It looks like Tyrannosaurus rex has another relative to add to its ever-growing family tree. In 2017, Badlands Dinosaur Museum crew member Jack Wilson spotted the remains of what turned out to be a new species of tyrannosaur, named Daspletosaurus wilsoni, or D. wilsoni. Wilson first saw a small, flat piece of bone projecting out of the bottom of a cliff at the Judith River Formation in northeastern Montana. The fossil Wilson spotted turned out to be part of the dinosaur’s nostril.

Additional fossils were uncovered between 2017 and 2021, including skeletal fragments of a rib…