What’s in a Name? The Battle of Baby T. Rex and Nanotyrannus #fossils #paleontology #trex #tyrannosaurusrex @SUEtheTrex @FieldMuseum #nanotyrannus

The dinosaur Jane, which is on display at the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, Ill., is part of the paleontological dispute.Credit...Burpee Museum

The New York Times has a story about the debate of juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex vs Nanotyrannus.  The debate has continued for years, but was recently revived by the potential sale of a “rare juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton” by the David Aaron gallery.  

The dispute has produced reams of scientific research and decades of debate, polarizing paleontologists along the way. Now, with dinosaur fossils increasingly fetching eye-popping prices at auction, the once-esoteric dispute has begun to ripple through auction houses and galleries, where some see the T. rex name as a valuable brand that can more easily command high prices.

“It’s ultimately a quite in-the-weeds question of the taxonomy and the classification of one very particular type of dinosaur,” said Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh. “However, it involves T. rex, and the debate always gets a little bit more ferocious when the king of dinosaurs is involved.”

On the internet, juvenile T. rex versus Nanotyrannus has become something of a meme, providing fuel for jokes on niche social media channels. (“I won’t believe in Nanotyrannus until it shows up at my own door and devours me,” a paleontology student with the handle “TheDinoBuff” joked recently on the social media site X.)