A team of Chinese paleontologists from the Zhejiang Natural History Museum in China has discovered a new species of carnivorous dinosaur belonging to the tyrannosaurid family. They were related to the famous Tyrannosaurus rex, the largest carnivorous dinosaur in history. The research was published in the scientific journal magazine Scientific Reports (SciRep).
The remains of a prehistoric creature were discovered at a construction site in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in 2017. Scientists named the discovered species Asiatyrannus xui after the famous Chinese explorer Xu Xing.
Fossil analysis has shown that Asiatyrannus was up to 4 meters long, with a skull measuring 47.5 centimeters. Like other tyrannosaurids, this lizard walked on its hind legs.
Asiatyrhanus lived during the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 66–72 million years ago. Paleontologists believe that these predators occupied a different ecological niche than their larger relatives, chasing and eating smaller, more agile prey.
Scientists believe the discovery of this species in southern China supports the theory that tyrannosaurs migrated east from an island called Laramidia, located off the coast of what is now North America.
Previously, paleontologists to come He concluded that Tyrannosaurus rex was almost twice the size of previous estimates and had a mass of up to 15 tonnes.