New species of tiny tyrannosaurs gave Rex its bite
The 'Dragon Prince', whose bones were found in a Mongolian museum, is thought to be about 20 million years older than the Tyrannosaurus Rex and provides a 'missing link' in the evolution of the apex predators.
The skeleton of the Khankhuuluu Mongoliensis demonstrates where the T Rex got its vicious bite, researchers who 'rediscovered' the species said.
'We see features in its nasal bone that eventually gave tyrannosaurs those very powerful bite forces,' said Jared Voris, from the University of Calgary, the researcher who found the bones.
The fossils were initially found in the early 1970s, but at the time were misidentified as belonging to a different tyrannosaur, Alectrosaurus.
The bones were put away in a drawer at the Institute of Palaeontology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences in the capital Ulaanbaatar, until they were re-discovered by then-PhD student Mr Voris.
He was handed two plastic tubes full of bones while visiting the institute – and eventually found the fossils were partial skeletons of two different dinosaurs from a new species.
Darla Zelenitsky, a palaeontologist from the University of Calgary, said: 'It is quite possible that discoveries like this are sitting in other museums that just have not been recognised.'
The skeleton shows that the 'Dragon Prince' was about four metres long and weighed only 750kg, according to the findings, published in the academic journal Nature.
An adult T Rex is believed to have weighed eight times as much.
'They were these really small, fleet-footed predators that lived in the shadows of other apex predatory dinosaurs,' said Dr Voris.
'This discovery shows us that, before tyrannosaurs became the kings, they were princes,' said Zelenitsky.
The finding is considered a 'transitional' fossil and has helped clarify the evolution of the tyrannosaur family, which was 'really messy previously,' said Dr Zelenitsky.
'What makes them so important is their age,' said Stephen Brusatte, a palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the study. 'They are about 86 million years old, a good 20 million years older than T Rex. It has been a frustrating gap in the record.'
The discovery also helps to paint the migration patterns of the tyrannosaurs.
From Asia to North America
They show that T Rex's direct ancestors probably migrated from Asia to North America across a land bridge that used to connect Siberia and Alaska 85 million years ago, Dr Zelenitsky said.
Tyrannosaurs then evolved in North America and remained there for the next several million years, she said.
'As the many tyrannosaur species evolved on the continent, they became larger and larger,' said Dr Zelenitsky.
The records are incomplete so scientists are unsure of what happened in Asia 80 million years ago. However, the Khankhuuluu may have later been replaced by larger, more dominant, tyrannosaurs.
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