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Showing posts with label Crest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crest. Show all posts

Wednesday, 8 February 2012

The Crowned Tyrannosaur

Tyrannosaurus Rex may have been the 'king of the Dinosaurs', but it was one of it's ancestors that wore a crown.
Found in the China this early Tyrannosaurid from the Late Jurassic was named Guanlong (Crowned Dragon) because of it's distinctive crest.
Pencil drawing of the head of Guanlong wucaii by Renato Santos
Guanlong is the oldest relative of Tyrannosaurus yet found, older even than Dilong. It is therefore a very basal Tyrannosaurid with the slender build, long arms (with three-fingered hands), and a long narrow snout common to most Coelurosaurs.
It did however have a number of specializations that put it clearly in the Tyrannosaur clade. Like T. rex and all other Tyrannosaurs Guanlong had two types of teeth, with the smaller front teeth being shaped like scrapers. The foremost bone of the jaw was also very high, giving Guanlong the relatively blunt snout common to all Tyrannosaurs.