Nature & Environment
Pinocchio Rex Enters the Tyrannosaur Family (Video)
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: May 12, 2014 12:14 PM EDT
A newly-discovered breed of dinosaur just entered the Tyrannosaur family. Nicknamed Pinocchio rex for its extremely long snout, this animal was one of the last of the dinosaurs, according to researchers from Edinburgh University in the United Kingdom.
"It's a new breed of tyrannosaur, with a long snout and lots of horns on its skull, very different from the short-snouted, robust, muscular skulls of T. rex. So it tells us that tyrannosaurs were more ecologically variable than we previously thought," said paleontologist Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, one of the researchers, via tempo.com.
A cousin to the well-known Tyrannosaurus rex, this carnivorous species used its long snout and rows of long, thin teeth to capture prey. The new specimen of the dinosaur--officially named Qianzhousaurus--was discovered near the city of Ganzhou in southern China, and is believed to be 66 million years old. Unfortunately, the dinosaur died just before hitting adulthood, with some close to 30 feet long.
"This is a different breed of tyrannosaur. It has the familiar toothy grin of T. rex, but its snout was much longer and it had a row of horns on its nose. It might have looked a little comical, but it would have been as deadly as any other tyrannosaur, and maybe even a little faster and stealthier," Brusatte said, via a press release.
Two skeletons of dinosaurs with elongated snouts were discovered before this specimen. Yet paleontologists were unable to determine if the fossils represented a new species or just an immature form of a previously-known dinosaur as both remains were of young animals.
"It is an awesome specimen, almost a complete skeleton. It is a really one in a million find that those workers made," Brusatte added.
More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Nature Communications.
Want to learn more about this dinosaur? Check out this video, courtesy of YouTube.
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First Posted: May 12, 2014 12:14 PM EDT
A newly-discovered breed of dinosaur just entered the Tyrannosaur family. Nicknamed Pinocchio rex for its extremely long snout, this animal was one of the last of the dinosaurs, according to researchers from Edinburgh University in the United Kingdom.
"It's a new breed of tyrannosaur, with a long snout and lots of horns on its skull, very different from the short-snouted, robust, muscular skulls of T. rex. So it tells us that tyrannosaurs were more ecologically variable than we previously thought," said paleontologist Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, one of the researchers, via tempo.com.
A cousin to the well-known Tyrannosaurus rex, this carnivorous species used its long snout and rows of long, thin teeth to capture prey. The new specimen of the dinosaur--officially named Qianzhousaurus--was discovered near the city of Ganzhou in southern China, and is believed to be 66 million years old. Unfortunately, the dinosaur died just before hitting adulthood, with some close to 30 feet long.
"This is a different breed of tyrannosaur. It has the familiar toothy grin of T. rex, but its snout was much longer and it had a row of horns on its nose. It might have looked a little comical, but it would have been as deadly as any other tyrannosaur, and maybe even a little faster and stealthier," Brusatte said, via a press release.
Two skeletons of dinosaurs with elongated snouts were discovered before this specimen. Yet paleontologists were unable to determine if the fossils represented a new species or just an immature form of a previously-known dinosaur as both remains were of young animals.
"It is an awesome specimen, almost a complete skeleton. It is a really one in a million find that those workers made," Brusatte added.
More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Nature Communications.
Want to learn more about this dinosaur? Check out this video, courtesy of YouTube.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone