... but newly discovered 3ft tall dinosaur is a teeny tiny T-rex

A TINY T-rex discovered in the United States could provide a key missing link in understanding how the creatures evolved to become giant predators.

Scientists who found the Moros intrepidus (pictured right), standing three feet high at the hip and weighing 12½ stone, said it roamed the plains of modern- day Utah around 96million years ago.

But within a relatively short timescale of some 15million years it had evolved into the fearsome beast standing nearly 20ft tall so well known today.

Lindsay Zanno of North Carolina State University, lead author of the study detailing the findings, said: ‘Moros is key to understanding how quickly tyrannosaurs ascended from minor players in the ecosystem to top of the food chain.’ The paleontologist, whose study is published in the journal Communications Biology, added: ‘We know that Moros was lightning fast and likely hunted on smaller prey.’