Albertosaurus sarcophagus. Original artwork from Feathered Dinosaurs.

2006.
Watercolour and gouache on Arches paper 420 x 655 mm, unframed, signed and dated by artist.

Albertosaurus sarcophagus. Original artwork from Feathered Dinosaurs. Lizard from Alberta that eats flesh.

Named after the discoveries from the Red Deer River sites in Alberta, Canada, this gracile tyrannosaur grew to about nine metres in length and weighed over a tonne. Albertosaurus is also known from juvenile remains, enabling American paleontologist Dale Russell to reconstruct what a hatchling tyrannosaur might have looked like. The one-metre-long baby Albertosaurus had proportionally longer arms and legs and a more slender snout than its adult form. Although several leading dinosaur experts argue that Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus could be the same genus, others who specialise in tyrannosaurs maintain the distinction between the two forms. Albertosaurus has some peculiar features in its braincase that make it distinct. This slender predator was undoubtedly faster than its contemporary, heavier kin such as Daspletosaurus, and was probably capable of chasing down the faster moving plant-eaters like the hadrosaurs. It bore more than 60 curved, serrated teeth in its jaws with which to tear its prey apart.

Artist's note: Albertosaurus is shown herewith the prominent brow horns and facial scarring of an experienced and fully adult tyrannosaurid. Based on evidence of the toothmarks of Tyrannosaurus rex found on the hip bone of a Triceratops, I have depicted the carcass of the Chasmosaurus with lacerations to the frill and hip areas, plausibly caused by the attacking tyrannosaur.

Superfamily: Tyrannosauroidea
Family: Tyrannosauridae
Age: Late Cretaceous
Albertosaurus sarcophagus. Original artwork from Feathered Dinosaurs. Locality: Alberta, Canada and Montana, USA.