Discovery of the dragon prince: ancestor of T. Rex in Mongolia!

Discovery of the dragon prince: ancestor of T. Rex in Mongolia!

Südosten der Mongolei, Mongolei - In an exciting new find, an international research group has discovered the Saurier-Art Khankhuuluu Mongoliensis , which is considered the direct ancestor of the famous Tyrannosaurus Rex. A study published in the renowned journal Nature , draws attention to this significant find, which highlights the evolution of the Tyrannosaurs.

Khankhuuluu Mongoliensis, whose name means "Dragon Prince of Mongolia", had a length of about 4 meters and weighed an estimated 0.75 tons. This dinosaurs was comparable to a large horse. The bones were originally discovered in the 1970s in the southeast of Mongolia and kept in the Mongolian Academy of Sciences in Ulan Bator. First, the fossils were identified as Alectrosaurus.

history of the tyrannosaurs

The discovery by the doctoral student Jared Voris During a research trip, an important point to clarify the family tree of the Tyrannosaurs, in particular with regard to the origin and distribution of species. Research provided evidence that Khankhuuluu probably hiked from Asia to North America via a country bridge between Siberia and Alaska, where the tyrannosaurs continued spread.

biogeographical insights

The results suggest that the direct ancestor of the eutyrannosaurs originated in Asia and spread across North America during the middle to late Cretaceous. Within 15 million years, both different and different types of North America settled, which differed in their morphology and their habitat.

While some of these tyrannosaurs returned to Asia around 78 million years ago and split into two groups - the Alioramini and the Tyrannosaurini - specific differences in physique and size. These distinctions resulted from various growth patterns; The Tyrannosaurini became efficient super hunters, while the Alioramini remained in a youthful blueprint.

The returning Tyrannosaurini ultimately led to the emergence of the Tyrannosaurus Rex, whose development without ancestors such as Khankhuuluu Mongoliensis would probably not have been possible. These findings expand our understanding of the evolutionary history of the tyrannosaurs and their adaptation strategies over millions of years.