The Queue: Tyrannosaurus mcraensis, and no, they’re not going to rename it Tyrannosaurus cassidensis

Honestly, if I didn’t talk about it, you’d all probably come to my house to complain. And yeah, that’s a T. rex image in the header, I honestly haven’t found an image of the new species I like yet.

So, after a century plus of our awareness, the genus Tyrannosaurus may finally have a new species. 

Tyrannosaurus has only had the one accepted species, rex, since its discovery in 1900. Earlier finds were reassigned to the species, but after 1900 until recently all of them were considered to be rex. There have been attempts to describe Tyrannosaurus species other than rex before, such as this analysis that tried to break the species up into rex, regina and imperator.

This new study is a re-examination of a skull that was found in rocks several million years older than our current understanding of when Tyrannosaurus rex lived. According to the study (authored by Sebastian G. Dalman, Mark A. Loewen, R. Alexander Pyron, Steven E. Jasinski, D. Edward Malinzak, Spencer G. Lucas, Anthony R. Fiorillo, Philip J. Currie & Nicholas R. Longrich) not only is the skull from rocks dating back to the Campanian–Maastrichtian transition (so around 73 million years ago, putting it more than 6 million years before our current understanding of when T. rex first appeared) but it also has specific morphological differences in its skull — narrower jaws, less prominent skull ridges — that distinguish it from T. rex.

It’s also from a more southern North American region than most Tyrannosaurus  specimens we have. Our current theories about where the genus Tyrannosaurus comes from indicates a possible radiation from Asia due to the presence of species like Tarbosaurus bataar and Zuchengtyrannis magnus. These are the currently accepted closest relatives of Tyurannosaurus rex, although if Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis is accepted it will be even closer as it is in the same genus and would likely be an ancestor of rex.

The mcraeensis species name comes from the McRae Group, a rock formation where the bones were found, so hopefully it won’t have to be renamed later. Yes, I realize this joke is both fairly obscure and somewhat dark, but if you know, you know.

Anyway, the TLDR:

• New species of Tyrannosaurus called T. mcraeensis proposed in new paper with some pretty big names like Phillip Currie attached.
• This species was very close to T. rex in terms of size but had distinctive bone morphology, and if accepted, would point to a potential North American origin for the Tyrannosaurus genus and the Tyrannosauridae as a clade.
• It was likely ancestral to T. rex due to it being about 7 million years older than currently understood T. rex specimens.
• It was not a six gun packing hero from Overwatch and will not likely have to change its name to Tyrannosaurus cassidensis or T. colecaaidae 

For my money, Phil Currie being on that paper makes me very much consider it a real possibility and if this is accepted it really changes a lot of what we thought we knew about Tyrannosaurus as a genus, so I’m super excited to see what happens next.

I mean, he’s no Mitch, but I’d consider putting out some cage traps. Once he’s safely in, you can drive him out to his natural habitat and release him.

If you are asking me, Matthew Rossi, IRL human who understands that Horde players are human beings with their own thoughts and feelings and they often just want to be able to play the game and see the content, I think it was a wise decision. Sometimes we forget that this is a game, and while I am not a fan of ludonarrative dissonance sometimes I can accept it if a decision is clearly made to allow the maximum amount of happiness for the most available players. It’s been several years in game since the Fourth War/War of Thorns, and it seems reasonable for the Horde and Alliance to try and mend fences in this way.

My various characters have different RP takes on it and it would take a long, long time to write them all out. My Tauren thinks it’s a good start. My Worgen and Night Elves are less excited, let’s just say.

Since being diagnoses with ADHD/Neurodivergence, I have come to accept that it wasn’t my mom’s fault she never understood that I found the idea of exasperating her with harmless rebellions to be emotionally satisfying.

So when you asked this question and I remembered doing the exact same thing to my mom while being fully aware that I was doing it, I smiled a little. In my opinion, the kid is using you to stim.

I think if you asked a 100 people what the iconic race/class combinations are in WoW you’d get 10,000 different answers. Obviously, for me at least, Warrior would be the one I’d list for every single race even Dracthyr and they can’t even be Warriors.

That said, I’d argue that for the allied races:

• Void Elves — Arcane Mage, Shadow Priest
• Nightborne — Any Mage
• Highmountain Tauren — Hunter or Shaman
• Lightforged Draenei — Paladin, Monkl, Priest
• Kul Tiran — Shaman, Druid
• Zandalari Trolls — Paladin, Druid
• Mag’har Orc — Warrior, Hunter, Shaman
• Dark Iron Dwarf — Paladin, Mage, Warlock
• Vulpera — Hunter, Rogue
• Mechagnome — Hunter, Rogue, Warlock

Now, I’d personally only play Warriors or Death Knights for most of these, but I do have a Dark Iron Dwarf Paladin I enjoy.

I mean, it gets to the point where I look at the anti Union, harassment concealing, crunch is good actually industry and I wonder — is any gaming company even just not evil anymore? I know, I know, no ethical consumption and all that, but still.

I have gripes about the fandom in general and the way video gamers just attack things for no other reason than It isn’t what I imagined it would be and I have no interest in actually playing what it is so now I’ll just bash on it constantly or what have you, but earlier today I was remembering some of the whole awful stuff Activision Blizzard did — the stuff that got them sued by California and looked at by the FCC, for just the tip of the iceberg — and I just can’t find it in me to feel good about any of these companies anymore.

I love the kind of games that AAA studios make, but lately, I’m starting to wish I could just go back to loving obscure games made in garages by a few people.

Okay, that’s the Queue for today. Here’s hoping we learn more about Tyrannosaurus mccraensis soon. Like, could we settle on a spelling, I’ve seen mccraensis, mccraeensis and even macraeensis on one site, please get together and nail this down y’all, the paper spells it Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis so that’s what I’d like to see going forward.