What is Tyrannosauroidea?
Tyrannosauroidea is the wider group that includes the tyrannosaurids and their earlier, usually smaller relatives. Fossils from the Jurassic and Cretaceous of Asia, Europe and North America show that the giant body form arrived late and that early members were lighter animals.
Some small early members, such as Dilong, preserve simple filament-like feathers, which has changed how scientists picture the group. Attributing feathers to the largest tyrannosaurs is more uncertain.
How this group is defined here
Members are the 4 field notes whose family or immediate parent group in the Paleobiology Database catalogue is Tyrannosauroidea. The interpreted diet field across the group is carnivore, based on skeletal features rather than direct observation. Groups are revised when new fossils are described, and some genera are placed here with less certainty than others, so each field note records its sources and limits.
