Suskityrannus hazelae: A relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, but just 3 feet tall

S hazelae is believed to have weighed between 45 and 90 pounds, compared to 90 tons for a typical full-grown T rex. Its diet likely consisted of the same as its larger meat-eating counterpart, but likely hunted small animals.

Sterling Nesbitt, now an assistant professor with Department of Geosciences in the Virginia Tech College of Science, had found the fossil at age 16 as a high school student participating in a dig expedition in New Mexico in 1998, led by Doug Wolfe, an author on the paper published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

The dinosaur was at least three years old at death based on an analysis of its growth from its bones. The fossil dates back 92 million years to the Cretaceous Period.

Source: Virginia Tech