Paleontologists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute
of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (IVPP) have
found the remains of a feathered, dragon-like forerunner of the
fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex. The creature lived between 139 million
and 128 million years ago in northeastern China's Liaoning
Province.
The IVPP's leading researcher Professor Xu Xing -- considered
the world's most successful fossil hunter -- said on October 7 that
the fossils of this surprising creature are extremely well
preserved. They have a skull that is almost complete, a rare
phenomenon in fossils of such antiquity.
Xu has named the new discovery Dilong paradoxus. The first word
is a composite of the Chinese "di" (emperor or imperial) and
"long" (dragon), while the second refers to the surprising
physical appearance of the animal.
D. paradoxus was small and slender: of the four sets of remains
found, the longest measures only about 1.6 meters from nose to
tail, while the other three are just 1.5 meters. The creature had
the characteristic powerful rear legs and ferociously sharp teeth
that made the T. rex the master of its world for 20 million years,
a reign that ended with the disappearance of the dinosaurs some 65
million years ago.
But nearly all Tyrannosaurus remains found so far indicate that
those creatures were huge, at least 10 meters in length.
There are several other significant differences as well. For
example, D. paradoxus' arms were longer in proportion to its body
than those of its monster-size descendant, and it had a long,
dragon-like snout.
Its scaly skin was covered with some sort of fibrous coat.
Researchers believe this coat was made up of a type of
proto-feathers that were used for warmth rather than for
flight.
"This discovery is of great significance. It proves that the
early ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex was small. It evolved gradually
into a mighty beast. With the increase of its body size, its
feathers gradually disappeared. This is also the first direct
fossil evidence that tyrannosaurids had protofeathers. It proves
again that the dinosaurs were descended from the same ancestors as
birds," said Xu.
The find was made at the Yixian formation in western Liaoning, a
veritable dinosaur graveyard that has yielded an abundance of
unique fossils.
(China.org.cn by staff writer Wang Qian, October 9, 2004)