New Dinosaur Species Discovered In Eastern China

Chinese scientists said Saturday they had discovered a new species of giant theropod dinosaurs in the eastern province of Shandong.

The new species is described as a close relative of Tyrannosaurus Rex (T. Rex), has been named "Zhuchengtyrannus magnus". Experts found it a unique paleontological upper jaw after examining the skull discovered and drilled in the city of Zhucheng.



It has been estimated at about 11 meters long and 4 meters high, weighs about 7 tons.

"We found two types of fossils of Tyrannosaurus here and the identity of others is still unclear," said Xu Xing, researcher of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"We named the new genus Zhuchengtyrannus Magnus, which means" Tyrant from Zhucheng 'because the bones are found in Zhucheng, "Xu says.

The bones were a couple of inches smaller than the corresponding bone in the largest specimen of T. rex, so there was no doubt that Zhuchengtyrannus was a huge tyrannosaur, Xu said.

According to Xu, Zhuchengtyrannus Magnus belonged to a specialized group of giant theropods called tyrannosaurines that existed in North America and East Asia during the Cretaceous period, dating back to around 65 to 99 million years.

All tyrannosaurs were carnivorous, bipedal animals that generally had small arms and large skulls. Among the tyrannosaurs were tyrannosaurines the largest and characterized by having only two fingers on each hand and large powerful jaws to deliver a bone crushing bite. They were probably both predators and scavengers.

The use of fossil quarry Zhucheng contains the largest concentrations of dinosaur bones in the world. At least 10 species of dinosaurs have been found in three rounds of excavations since 1960, including the Tyrannosaurus and Hadrosaurs.

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