Yutyrannus
| Yutyrannus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous,
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|---|---|
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| Restored skeletons mounted in fighting poses | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Superfamily: | †Tyrannosauroidea |
| Genus: | †Yutyrannus Xu et al., 2012 |
| Species: | †Y. huali
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| Binomial name | |
| Yutyrannus huali Xu et al., 2012
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Yutyrannus is a Tyrannosauroid dinosaur, an early forebear of Tyrannosaurus rex.
It lived during the Lower Cretaceous 124.6 million years ago (mya). It was about 10 meters long and 3 meters tall, and is the largest known dinosaur with direct evidence of feathers.[1][2][3][4] It is forty times heavier than the previous record holder, Beipiaosaurus.[5][6] The feathers were long, up to 20 centimetres (7.9 in), and filamentous.
The fossil was found in what is now northeastern China. Three fossils of Y. huali, were all found in the rock beds of Liaoning Province. Because of its size, it is certain that Yutyrannus could not fly. The feathers supported other functions, such as temperature regulation and visual signalling.
Yutyrannus is known from three nearly complete fossil specimens (an adult, a subadult and a juvenile). They were got from a fossil dealer who claimed all three were found in a single quarry at Batuyingzi in Liaoning Province. They were probably found in a layer of the Yixian Formation.
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Wilford, John N (4 April 2012). "Bus-size dinosaurs, as fuzzy as chicks". The New York Times.
- ↑ "New flying T-Rex discovered!?". SourceFed. YouTube. April 5, 2012. Retrieved December 28, 2012.
- ↑ "New dinosaur species is largest known feathered animal". Red Orbit. April 5, 2012. Archived from the original on March 27, 2015. Retrieved December 28, 2012.
- ↑ Ker Than (April 2012). "One-ton feathered dinosaur found: fluffy and fierce". National Geographic. Retrieved December 28, 2012.
- ↑ Xu X. et al. 2012. A gigantic feathered dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of China (2012). "A gigantic feathered dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of China" (PDF). Nature. 484 (7392): 92–95. Bibcode:2012Natur.484...92X. doi:10.1038/nature10906. PMID 22481363. S2CID 29689629.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ↑ Welsh, Jennifer (5 April 2012). "Humongous fuzzy dinosaur unearthed in China". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 5 April 2012.