Appalachiosaurus

Appalachiosaurus ( AP-ə-LAY-chee-oh-SOR-əs; "Appalachian lizard") is a genus of tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period of what is now eastern North America. It was a basal member of the clade Eutyrannosauria, meaning it was rather close in relation to the true tyrannosaurids such as Tyrannosaurus. Like most theropods, it was a bipedal predator. Only a juvenile skeleton has been found, representing an animal approximately 6.5 metres (21 ft) long and weighing 623 kilograms (1,373 lb), which indicates an adult would have been significantly larger. Fossils of Appalachiosaurus were found in central Alabama's Demopolis Chalk Formation. This formation dates to the middle of the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous, around 77 million years ago. Fossil material assigned to Appalachiosaurus is also known from the Donoho Creek and Tar Heel/Coachman formations of South and North Carolina respectively in 2007, as well as the Ripley Formation in the Hannahatchee Creek in Georgia.