The new types of dinosaur have discovered that “rewrite” T.Rex’s family tree

Scientists have discovered a new type of dinosaur – in the collection of the Mongol Museum – that they say “rewrite” the evolutionary history of tyrannosaurus.

The researchers have come to the conclusion that two skeletons of 86 million years have explored, belonging to a species that is now the closest well-known ancestor of all tyrannosaurs-group predators, which includes the emblematic T.rex.

The researchers called the species khankhuuluu (pronounced khan-koo-Loo) mongoliensis, which means the Dragon Prince of Mongolia.

The discovery, Posted in nature, is a window in how tyrannosaurs developed to become powerful predators that terrorized North America and Asia by the end of the dinosaur reign.

“Prince” is that it is an early, lower tyrannosauroid, explained Prof. Darla Zeletsi, a paleontologist at the University of Calgary in Canada. Tyranosauroids are the super -family of carnivorous dinosaurs that went on two feet.

However, the first tyrannosauroids were tiny.

Doctoral student Jared Voris, who led research with Prof. Zeletsky, explained: “They were these really small navy predators who lived in the shadows of other predatory dinosaurs at the top.”

Khankhuulu is an evolutionary change – from those little hunters who diverge during the Jurassic period – to the great giants, including T -rex.

It would weigh about 750 kg, while adult T.rex could weigh so eight times, so “it is a transient (fossil),” explained Prof. Zeletsi, “between the older ancestors and the powerful tyrannosaurs.”

“This has helped us review a tyranazaur family tree and rewrite what we know about the evolution of tyrannosaurus,” she added.

The new species also shows early evolutionary stages of characteristics that were key to tyrannosaurus, including the anatomy of the skull, which gave it a strong jaw. Jared Voris explained: “We see the features in our nasal bone, which eventually gave the tyrannosaur these very powerful bite forces.”

The evolution of such powerful jaws allowed T-Rex to throw on a larger prey and even bite through the bone.

The two partial skeletons that the team examined in this study was first discovered in Mongolia as early as the early 1970s. Initially, they were appointed to an existing species known as Alectrosaurus, but when Mr Voris examines them, it identified the tyrannosaur-like functions that divide it.

“I remember getting a text from him – that he thought it was a new kind,” Prof. Zeletsi recalled.

The fact that this group of dinosaurs managed to move between North America and Asia – through land bridges that connected Siberia and Alaska at that time – also helped them find and occupy different niches.

G -n Voris explained: “This movement back and forth between the continents mainly pushed the evolution of different groups of tyrannosaurs” in millions of years.

Prof. Zelinitsky added: “This discovery shows us that before the tyrannosaurus became the kings, they were princes.”