Scientists have discovered what they say is the earliest known Tyrannosaur, a direct ancestor of the largest land predator in the history of the planet, the Tyrannosaurus rex. The discovery was reported in Thursday's edition of the journal 'Nature.'
Two skeletons of the new species were found in the badlands of China. The animal is estimated to have lived 160 million years ago, approximately 90 million years before the emergence of T.Rex.
The scientists who discovered the new creature named it Guanlong wucaii, Chinese for the words for 'crown' and 'dragon.' Guanlong wucaii stood roughly 10 feet tall from its snout to the tip of its tail and was approximately three feet tall at the hip.
It also had a narrow, delicate, largely hollow crest on its head. James Clark, the co-author of the study, said the crest was very large for a two-legged, meat-eating dinosaur. Clark and his fellow scientists are not sure of the purpose of the crest but they believe that it was used to attract other members of the species.
Guanlong wucaii also had relatively long, three-fingered arms, rather than the two-fingered stubby arms T. rex had.
Scientists believe this discovery is a major link in the chain of the family tree of Tyrannosaurus rex.
