Researchers from the Beijing Academy of Sciences are the architects of a discovery relating to the prehistoric world. In fact, a new dinosaur specimen closely related to the Tirannosaurus rex has been identified. It is the Yutyrannus huali, a feathered dinosaur of considerable size. Its length could in fact reach nine meters, while its weight well exceeded one ton.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Il biggest feathered animal ever? A new kind of dinosaur. To find out some researchers from the Beijing Academy of Sciences who have identified a new specimen of dinosaur closely related to the Tirannosaurus rex. It is the Yutyrannus huali, for an feathered dinosaur of considerable size. Its length could in fact reach nine meters, while its weight well exceeded the ton.
Experts were able to obtain these data following the discovery of the almost complete remains of three specimens of the huge feathered dinosaur. Previously, the existence of feathered dinosaurs had already been confirmed, but their dimensions were much smaller than the three specimens in question. The Beipiaosaurus it held the distinction of the largest feathered dinosaur identified so far. Its privileged position, however, was undermined by the Yutyrannus huali, whose size proved to be forty times larger.
The findings of the discovery were published in the pages of the journal Nature. It has led researchers to reconsider the spread of feathered dinosaur species throughout prehistoric times. Xing Xu, one of the researchers of the Beijing Academy of Sciences, has declared open the possibility that the presence of feathers was much more common among carnivorous specimens of dinosaurs than previously thought.
The fossil remains of the three feathered dinosaurs were found in China, In the province of Liaoning, located in the north-eastern part of the country, in the same area where the existence of Beipiaosaurus was discovered. The Yutyrannus huali would have had its greatest diffusion in the course of the upper Cretaceous period, situable between 100 million and 65 million years ago, appearing on Earth much earlier than their best-known descendant, the Tirannosaurus rex.
Experts were quite surprised to find the presence of feathers in large dinosaurs. In fact, they were usually endowed with smaller specimens, which needed greater protection from the cold and bad weather. The large specimens, still in the opinion of Xing Xu, would in fact be able to retain more easily the accumulated body heat. Experts have speculated that the explanation of the phenomenon could be linked to the period in which the huge feathered dinosaurs inhabited the planet. The Upper Cretaceous it was in fact characterized by much colder temperatures than in the late Cretaceous, which saw the appearance of the Tirannosaurus rex, a prehistoric animal notoriously devoid of plumage.
Marta Albè
