Pronunciation: SOO-skee-TY-ran-us
Meaning: Coyote king
Author/s: Wolfe et al. (2019)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: New Mexico, USA
Discovery Chart Position: #1003
Suskityrannus hazelae
Before being formally published, the fossils destined to become Suskityrannus were mentioned as belonging to a small dromaeosaurid by Wolfe and Kirkland in their 1998 description of Zuniceratops, referred to as "the Zuni coelurosaur" in When Dinosaurs Roamed America in 2001, and called "Zunityrannus" in the 2011 documentary Planet Dinosaur. In episode six of the latter series, entitled The Great Survivors, a pack of Suskityrannus proceeded to not survive at all: after hurling themselves at the pot-bellied, sloth-mimic Nothronychus and failing spectacularly—twice—they sealed their fate by cannibalizing an infected carcass of their own kind, succumbing to botulism in grim succession. It's a strangely dramatic prelude for an animal that, in reality, spent most of its scientific life hiding in plain sight—misidentified, mislabeled, and waiting for its moment in the scientific limelight.
When the species was finally described in 2019, Suskityrannus hazelae emerged as a crucial mid-Cretaceous puzzle piece. The fossils come from rocks roughly 92 million years old, deposited during a time that is notoriously under-sampled thanks to high sea levels that drowned large swaths of the continents and reduced the odds of terrestrial fossil preservation. That scarcity makes Suskityrannus especially valuable: the animal occupies an evolutionary gap between the small, gracile tyrannosauroids of the Early Cretaceous and the huge, bone-crunching tyrannosaurids that would later dominate North America. Far from a giant itself—around 3 meters long and roughly 40 kilos, with a body still echoing its lightly built ancestors—it nonetheless reveals the hallmark traits of the lineage beginning to take shape.
The skull shows features linked to increasing bite forces, hinting at the muscular, power-focused heads that would later define the group. Its foot is even more revealing: Suskityrannus preserves the earliest known tyrannosauroid example of the "pinched" arctometatarsalian foot, where the middle of three metatarsals is squeezed between its neighbors. This structure is associated with efficient running and force distribution, suggesting that tyrannosaurs first refined their speed and agility long before they bulked up into multi-ton predators.
When the species was finally described in 2019, Suskityrannus hazelae emerged as a crucial mid-Cretaceous puzzle piece. The fossils come from rocks roughly 92 million years old, deposited during a time that is notoriously under-sampled thanks to high sea levels that drowned large swaths of the continents and reduced the odds of terrestrial fossil preservation. That scarcity makes Suskityrannus especially valuable: the animal occupies an evolutionary gap between the small, gracile tyrannosauroids of the Early Cretaceous and the huge, bone-crunching tyrannosaurids that would later dominate North America. Far from a giant itself—around 3 meters long and roughly 40 kilos, with a body still echoing its lightly built ancestors—it nonetheless reveals the hallmark traits of the lineage beginning to take shape.
The skull shows features linked to increasing bite forces, hinting at the muscular, power-focused heads that would later define the group. Its foot is even more revealing: Suskityrannus preserves the earliest known tyrannosauroid example of the "pinched" arctometatarsalian foot, where the middle of three metatarsals is squeezed between its neighbors. This structure is associated with efficient running and force distribution, suggesting that tyrannosaurs first refined their speed and agility long before they bulked up into multi-ton predators.
(Hazel Wolfe's Coyote King)Etymology
Suskityrannus is derived from the Zuni "suski" (coyote) and the Latin "tyrannus" (king).
The species epithet, hazelae, honours Hazel Wolfe, wife of palaeontologist Douglas Wolfe, whose tireless efforts, support, and sacrifices made possible much of the success at the Moreno Hill fossil localities.
ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:7A2A304F-66E9-4788-BAFC-1FBFD17ED47A.
Discovery
The remains of Suskityrannus were discovered at "Mirror Mesa" in the lower member
of the Moreno Hill Formation, Zuni Basin, New Mexico.The holotype (MSM P4754) is a partial skull, two neck vertebrae with rib fragments, a partial back vertebra, a piece of hip vertebra, two partial metatarsals and various other fragments.
The Paratype (MSM P6178), found 30 meters from the holotype, includes a partial skull, vertebrae from the back, hip and tail, a partial left shoulder blade, hand claw fragments, partial hip bones (pubes), a thigh, shin, calf and ankle, a partial right foot and assorted bone fragments. Although Robert Denton and a teenage Sterling Nesbitt get all the mainstream media love for their Suskityrannus fossil finds in 1997 and 1998 respectively, the formal 2019 description — led by Nesbitt with Denton as a co-author — thanks Brian Anderson for discovering and documenting the holotype.
Preparators
Harold and Phyllis Bollan of Grand Junction, Colorado.
