The remains of an unknown predatory dinosaur the size of a bus found in Uzbekistan

The remains of an unknown predatory dinosaur the size of a bus found in Uzbekistan
The remains of an unknown predatory dinosaur the size of a bus found in Uzbekistan
Anonim

Japanese and Canadian scientists have determined that the dinosaur bone found in Uzbekistan belongs to a previously unknown species of giant lizards that were once at the top of the food chain.

New dinosaur species was larger than T. rex and was at the top of the food chain

The dinosaur, dubbed Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis, was nearly eight meters long (like an average passenger bus) and had 15cm sharp teeth. It was the predecessor of Tyrannosaurus rex (lived about 90 million years ago), but at the same time was five times their size.

Like tyrannosaurs, this predator moved on two lower limbs, had a large head and short front legs with sharp claws. The dinosaur belonged to the Carcharodontosauridae family.

“At the time, it was the largest predator in the local ecosystem,” explains one of the co-authors of the article, Professor Darla Zelenitskaya of the University of Calgary, Canada. “We do not yet know exactly why the carcharodontosaurids became extinct about 90 million years ago, and how exactly the tyrannosaurs took their place as top predators, which in the Late Cretaceous period represents Tyrannosaurus rex for us.”

The new species was identified from bone fragments and teeth found in the 1980s by Soviet paleontologists at the Jarakuduk paleontological complex located in the Kyzyl Kum desert in Uzbekistan.

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