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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Tiny tyrannosaur species discovered in Mongolia
A new species of dinosaur has been discovered, which scientists say shows how tyrannosaurs evolved from smaller predators the size of a horse. 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. 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. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Ginormous Claws Found in The Gobi Desert Belong to a Never-Before-Seen Species
A newly discovered species of feathered, bipedal dinosaur with "exceptionally preserved and atypical hands" had just two fingers, each one tipped with a gigantic, claw-like talon. A remarkable fossil specimen found in southeastern Mongolia gave researchers a clear idea of what the claws would have looked like in real life, with their keratin sheath still clearly visible, extending the bones into wicked talons. In their published study, a team led by paleontologist Yoshitsugu Kobayashi from Hokkaido University in Japan analyzed the fossils' appearance, similarities to relatives, and geological context to determine where to place this dinosaur in our records. They've named it Duonychus tsogtbaatari, with a genus that means 'two claws' in Greek, and a species name honoring Mongolian paleontologist Khishigjav Tsogtbaatar. The fossil was dug out of a Cretaceous sedimentary deposit in the Gobi Desert by a team of researchers from the Mongolian Academy of Sciences in 2012. Known as the Bayanshiree Formation, this area is a hotspot for dinosaur fossils, thanks to its arid conditions and layers of lithified mud, clay, and sand. It's turned up giant footprints, plane-sized pterosaurs, and the famous 'fighting dinosaurs'. Uranium-lead dating of the mineral layers adjacent to the find suggests this newly discovered fossil could be around 90 to 95 million years old. Most of the bones are from its upper limbs and torso: There are some vertebrae, a bit of pelvis and ribs, part of one shoulder blade, and a whole lot of arm and hand bones. And, of course, a set of nails that would make Cardi B jealous. Duonychus's claws measure almost 30 centimeters (12 inches) long. It joins the therizinosaurs, a group of feathered, bipedal dinosaurs found in Cretaceous-era fossil deposits across Asia and North America. Until now, this clade was defined by its members' three-fingered hands, also studded with massive claws. "The discovery of Duonychus tsogtbaatari is a big deal because it's the first known therizinosaur with only two fingers," Kobayashi told James Woodford of New Scientist. "Most theropods, including other therizinosaurs, kept three functional fingers, so finding one that lost a digit is pretty unexpected." Among theropods, of which Tyrannosaurus is the most notable, only five are known to have reduced or totally absent third fingers, all independently of each other, and seemingly for totally different reasons. We won't know why Duonychus settled with two fingers rather than three without extra specimens or analysis, but the researchers think it may be related to its method of feeding. The menacing curves and 90-degree range of motion suggest the dinosaur grasped onto vegetation, like a sloth or chameleon. This may have helped Duonychus pull leafy food towards its mouth, in true therizinosaur fashion. "As herbivorous or omnivorous theropods with long necks and small leaf-shaped teeth, the evolution of their unusual hands likely played an important role in the feeding ecology of this clade," the authors write in a paper describing the find. "Although claws usually have a dominant function, likely for hook-and-pull foraging in most derived therizinosaurs, these structures could also have been utilized for other purposes, such as territoriality, defense, courtship, play, etc." The researchers say these are the largest three-dimensional dinosaur claws preserved with the sheath and underlying finger bone intact. "Keratin usually doesn't fossilize. It decays long before bones do," Kobayashi told Woodford. "Most of the time, when we find dinosaur claws, we're only looking at the bony core. But in life, the actual claw would have been covered in a thick keratin sheath, making it longer and more curved." The research was published in iScience. IUCN Sounds Alarm as 411 Fungi Species Face Extinction Mysterious Giants May Be a Whole New Kind of Life That No Longer Exists Venus Flytrap Wasp: 99-Million-Year-Old Amber Reveals Bizarre New Species
National Geographic
25-03-2025
- Science
- National Geographic
This bizarre new dinosaur has something in common with modern sloths
Therizinosaurs were some of the strangest dinosaurs of all time. Descended from carnivores, the prehistoric reptiles were plant-eaters and had fuzzy feathered bodies, small heads with peg-like teeth in their jaws, bulbous stomachs that acted like fermenting vats for heaps of vegetation, and impressively large claws on each of their hands. Their build and claws have drawn comparisons to sloths, but some of these reptiles stood over 13 feet tall and weighed more than five tons. Now paleontologists have uncovered a therizinosaur that stands out even among its unusual relatives—because it's missing a finger. Described in the journal iScience today, the new dinosaur comes from rocks in Mongolia's Gobi Desert that are over 90 million years old. Back in 2012, paleontologists from the Mongolian Academy of Sciences initially unearthed parts of the spine, ribs, hips, and shoulders, and finally found two complete hands. They immediately recognized the fossils as those of a therizinosaur, but its status as a new dinosaur would take time to fully uncover. When Hokkaido University paleontologist and lead study author Yoshitsugu Kobayashi first saw the fossils the following year, he was immediately surprised that the dinosaur only had two fingers on each hand. Until the new find, all known therizinosaurs had three fingers with large claws at the end of each. 'Not only that, but one of the fingers had a preserved keratinous sheath and I was like 'Holy crap,' Kobayashi recalls.
