Meet the ‘Wee-rex’. Tiny tyrannosaur is its own species
Nature Podcast
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4.4 • 859 Ratings
🗓️ 5 November 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
00:45 The debate around Nanotyrannus
A hotly debated species of dinosaur, assumed by many to be a juvenile T. rex, is actually a separate species, according to new research. Nanotyrannus was a dinosaur anatomically similar to T. rex, but about a tenth of the size, leading many to argue it was a young version of the iconic species. However, examination of the limb bones of a well-preserved Nanotyrannus fossil suggests it was close to finishing its growth and so would never become as large as a T. rex, leading the authors to argue that it is, in fact, a different species.
Research Article: Zanno and Napoli
News and Views: T. rex debate settled: contested fossils are smaller rival species, not juveniles
News: ‘Teenage T. rex’ fossil is actually a different species
Video: Hotly debated dinosaur is not a tiny T. rex after all
08:46 Research Highlights
An artificial ‘neuron’ could pave the way to build a brain-inspired computer — plus, how bats buck the trend by hunting prey their own size.
Research Highlight: Artificial brains with less drain
Research Highlight: By the time you hear these bats, it’s too late
11:19 A less invasive way to prevent breast cancer
An ‘anti-hormone’ therapy has shown promise in halting the onset of hallmarks associated with breast cancer, in a small trial. Breast cancer is a leading cause of death in women worldwide, but preventative measures, such as mastectomies, are invasive. A new study examined the efficacy of a treatment that blocks progesterone, a hormone thought to play an important role in breast cancer progression. The therapy reduced both specific clinical markers of breast cancer and the number of cells that can become cancerous. Larger, longer trials are needed to show that this treatment could ultimately become part of a breast cancer prevention strategy, but the team think that this work shows the promise of this approach.
Research Article: Simões et al.
18:41 Briefing Chat
A new approach to speed up CRIPSR therapies reaching clinical trials, and how vocal cords could be healed using a tiny 3D printer.
Nature: Personalized gene editing helped one baby: can it be rolled out widely?
Nature: World’s smallest 3D bioprinter could rebuild tissue during surgery
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | nature in an experiment i don't know yet why is it like so far like it sounds so simple they had no idea |
| 0:10.7 | but now the data's i find this not only refreshing but but at some level astounding nature |
| 0:23.6 | welcome back to the nature podcast. |
| 0:26.4 | This week, the heated debate surrounding a Tyrannosaur-like dinosaur. |
| 0:30.5 | And a breast cancer prevention therapy shows promise. |
| 0:34.4 | I'm Benjamin Thompson. |
| 0:35.7 | And I'm Charmany Bundell. |
| 0:45.3 | Okay. promise. I'm Benjamin Thompson and I'm Charmoney Bundell. First up, a debate 65 million years in the making. Is a controversial Cretaceous |
| 0:51.7 | dinosaur a young T-Rex or is it a completely different species? |
| 0:56.4 | Paleontologists have been arguing about this for some time, but now new research in nature may |
| 1:01.4 | finally end the debate. The paper details a new examination of a fossil of a dinosaur dubbed |
| 1:06.6 | nanotyrannus. This diminutive dinosaur was about five and a half metres long, about the same |
| 1:13.1 | as a big car, and weighed about as much as a large cow, almost 700 kilograms, so pretty hefty, |
| 1:20.0 | but still about 10 times smaller than the enormous Tyrannosaurus rex. For decades, paleontologists |
| 1:26.7 | have suggested that the few nanotaranus fossils that |
| 1:29.6 | had been found were simply juvenile T-Rexes, not yet fully grown. Now, the authors of this paper |
| 1:35.7 | say that some newly examined nanotaranus limb bones could reveal whether or not it would have grown up |
| 1:41.2 | to become a T-Rex or simply stayed small as its own separate species. |
| 1:46.1 | I caught up with paleontologist Lawrence Whitmer, who's been writing a news and views article about the new paper to dig into the details. |
| 1:53.2 | When he answered the video call, I was greeted by a room filled with dinosaur skulls. |
| 1:57.9 | In fact, Larry was already holding one, So I asked him a clarifying question. |
| 2:02.6 | I think it would be fair to say that you're a dinosaur fan? Yeah, I'd been a dinosaur fan since I was a |
... |
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