Paleontologists in China have originated evidence of the largest feathered dinosaur so far. The latest species, known as Yutyrannus, has been recognized from three fossils establish in north-eastern China. The feathered meat-eating dinosaur lived concerning 125 million years ago, long before Tyrannosaurus Rex, and is predictable to have weighed a whopping 1,400kg as a grown-up, the BBC reported. The finds, complete in Nature journal, challenge present theories about the progress of Tyrannosaurus Rex and its affairs.
This cluster of dinosaurs is known as the Tyrannosauroids. Tyrannosaurus Rex and its huge cousins live until approximately 65 million years ago - when enormous asteroids wiped out the dinosaurs - but the majority of their previous relatives are consideration to have been much smaller. On the other hand, Xing Xu and generation from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have now detailed three specimens of Yutyrannus, which represent a premature example of the Tyrannosauroid form.
The dinosaur fossils contain the one-and-a-half-ton adult and also two young specimens that would have tipped the scales at concerning half a ton. The dinosaur, whose name translates as “beautiful feathered tyrant”, shares several features with shortly tyrannosaurs like T.rex, but has three useful fingers (where T. Rex had two) and a foot characteristic of additional early tyrannosaur relatives.
Perhaps the majority notable discovery, though, is the creature’s wide plumage, which provides direct confirmation for the survival of huge feathered dinosaurs. The scientists believe the long, filament-like feathers could have acted as insulation, but they cannot rule out the opportunity that they were moreover used for display in mating or fighting rituals.
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We are learning more and more about dinosaurs every day. You can see it in the peer-reviewed publications across the net and in the journals.
Consider that the human species has been evolving for around a million years. The creatures of the Cretaceous, the last era before the K-T extinction, had a hundred times that long to evolve.
There's increasing amounts of fossil as well as extrapolated evidence to confirm not only feathers but also revise our thinking about their intelligence, agility and social characteristics of these animals. T-Rex for example is now recognized to have significant family and social ties. They are also now known to be faster, more agile and smarter than we thought. Many of the predators are known to hunt in packs, a social characteristic that requires not only intelligence but communications.
Current studies on dinosaur intelligence relied on brain casing volume-ratios to estimate intelligence. Yet recent work with African Grey Parrots show these small avians to be capable of intelligent conversation and even deductive reasoning, findings that contradict the methods used in dinosaur intelligence estimation.
We are learning more and more about dinosaur society from track lines and nesting sites. The population of the late Creataceous was much more than the simple minded reptilian brutes that people have envisioned in the past. Like dolphins, they may not have thought the same way we do but they apparently were intelligent. The question now is just how intelligent?
The question of dinosaur feathers surfaces more and more every day. At first it was thought only the theropods (bird ancestors) supported them. Now there is strong evidence and even amber samples of non-theropod feathered structures (Scientific American blog). The question has progressed from "whether or not" to "how much and how well developed".
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