Fossils of the most ferocious dinosaurs and thought to be one of the Earth's castaways about 80 million years ago, was found in the southern of Utah, USA. This predator is thought to be a close relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, but live in an older era to become the largest predator on land at the time.
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| The new predator was on the same evolutionary line as T. rex. (Picture from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/) |
The dinosaur's heigh is estimated 9 meters, and was named Lythronax argestes meaning "the pounce king". Research on these findings published by the PLoS One journal and they underline that the findings of the dinosaurs is not over yet.
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| The skeleton of a Lythronax argestes is seen in this handout image from the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Picture from: http://www.reuters.com/) |
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| This skull, which includes pieces of real fossil, shows the unique features of this new tyrannosaur. (Picture from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/) |
According to the BBC on November 6, 2013, that the research team also hopes the new findings will help uncover the mystery of what caused the mighty ancient animals that eventually become extinct.
"It's always fun to find new species. But the main thing is what can be explained by the nature of this species of that time," said Randall Irmis, who co-authored the study of the Natural History Museum in Utah.
Part of bones allegedly order this beast was first discovered in 2009, including a skull and some bones body. Fossils were then excavated and studied carefully in the laboratory. The specimen was found allegedly not grow up like an adult Tyrex in general. New findings finally concluded the animal was closely related to the T-rex in which both have a similar form that evolved in 10 million years earlier, much earlier than previously estimated.
"This place is definitely very different 80 million years ago. Forewarned is dense jungle, green and wet tropical climate, and there is no global warming issue in that time," he said. Lythronax has a short pointed snout and protruding eyes. Rows of sharp teeth and very complete, so as the predator it is the largest in the world at that time.
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| An undated artist rendering of a Lythronax argestes is seen in this handout image from the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. (PIcture from: http://www.reuters.com/) |
The research team also found the most complete fossil of another tyrannosaur family, named Teratophoneus curriei. Originally only found some skull bones, but now it is found around 70 percent of the whole skeleton of its body parts. "There is a tremendous diversity of the tyrannosaur family branches waiting to be found there," said Dr Irmis.
It is unclear why so many species of dinosaurs is in one point in time, but according to experts contributing factor is the changes of sea level. As a result of the sea level changing, according to experts, this particular dinosaur then isolated at that point and as a result they evolved in that place. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | SCIENCEDAILY | BBC | REUTERS]
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