Discovered new Tyrannosaur cousin!

A 3,086-pound shaggy tyrannosaur was the world's largest known feathered animal -- living or extinct -- according to a paper in the latest issue of Nature.


The newly unearthed tyrannosaur, named Yutyrannus huali or "beautiful feathered tyrant," lived about 125 million years ago in northeastern China. The over 29-foot-long non-avian dinosaur, represented by three specimens, is considerably smaller than its infamous relative T. rex, but some 40 times the weight of the largest previously known feathered dinosaur, Beipiaosaurus.

"The largest specimen preserves feathers on the tail, and two smaller specimens preserve feathers over the neck, on the forelimbs, near the pelvis, and even feet," lead author Xing Xu, a professor at Beijing's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, told Discovery News.

Xu and his colleagues analyzed the remains of the three dinosaurs and discovered that patches of filamentous structures were near the bones on the slabs containing the specimens. The researchers believe that when the dinosaurs were alive, these simple structures would have been more like the fuzzy down of a modern baby chick than the stiff plumes of an adult bird.


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