Newly identified T. rex ancestor is “missing link” between apex predators, dinosaur researchers say

More than 85 million years ago, a smaller ancestor from Tyrannosaurus Rex crossed the plains of Mongolia. The identity of the dinosaur was unknown – so far.

In a study Published Wednesday in nature, scientists describe the identification of a new tyrannosauroid called Khankhuulu Mongolieisis. Apex predators, including T. RexFinally resisted these tyrannosauroids with a full -bodied, said the researchers of the study.

“This species, Khankhuuluu, is the missing link between the smaller and anterior forms and the largest predatory tyrannosaurs,” the paleontologist of the Apex, professor at the University of Calgary and co-author of the study, told CBS.

The skeleton of Khankhuuluu was discovered in Mongolia in the Gobi desert in 1972 or 1973, but was not studied scientifically until a few years later, “said Zelenitsky. The remains were identified by the Mongolian paleontologist Alterel pearl like Alectrosaurus olsoni, another dark species. After being poorly identified, the bones were part of a collection of museums and were relatively intact for almost 50 years.

Referred by quality tyrannosauroids halfway, these smaller thorough predators were evolutionary intermediaries, the study revealed. During the period when Khankhuulu lived in Mongolia, the Tyrannosaures began to grow and take the characteristics of the Apex predators. We don’t know much else about these elusive tyrannosauroids due to the remains of fragmentary fossils, but the researchers said that dinosaurs weighed approximately 1,700 pounds. They were one of the greatest predators in the ecosystem at the time.

“It is essentially the immediate ancestor of the Tyrannosaurus family,” said Zelenitsky.

A surprise discovery

The postdoctoral scholarship holder of the University of Calgary and the co-author of the Jared Viris study went to Mongolia a few years earlier to search for the bones of various tyrannosaurs and, in doing so, had access to see the bones of what they would determine later are Le Khankhuulu.

Voris thought that leftovers could be something important, because he often saw references to the specimens appearing, but after starting to examine the bones, he knew it could be something special. While studying the individual characteristics of the bones, one of the things he noticed was that Khankhuulu’s teeth could not crush the bones, said Voris, a decisive characteristic of the greatest tyrannosaurus predatory of the apex.

“This animal had characteristics that we had never seen before in more of our emblematic tyrannosaurs,” said Voris.

He sent a text to Zelenitsky from Mongolia that he “thought it could be a new species”. Zelenitsky said she replied, “I said, very well, continue to look at this so that we can be sure that it is a new species.”

The two paleontologists are not new in revolutionary scientific discoveries – there have been several. In 2023Zelenitsky was part of a team that identified a Tyrannosaurus fossil with a meal in the stomach, and Voris discovered A new species of Tyrannosaurid dinosaur, thanatotoralist degrootorum – whose name is translated as “Reaper of Death”.

“Rewrite a family story by Tyrannosaures”

These Asian tyrannosauroids finally crossed North America using a northern terrestrial bridge between Alaska and Siberia, Zelenitsky said. The dinosaurs used these terrestrial bridges, which appeared periodically during the 100 million years to travel between Asia and North America.

And from there, these tyrannosauroids have evolved and turned into apex predators. T. Rex is the Pluriest land predator Never live, and there has been a fascination for the dinosaur for a long time that has been turned off for about 66 million years.

The study co-authors said that the new identification shows that there are still great discoveries to make in science. “What really started as a discovery of a new species ended up with us by rewriting a family story of Tyrannosaures,” said Zelenitsky.