Researchers discover first deep-snouted tyrannosaur in Southern China

A paleontological research team in China has identified a new species of tyrannosaur. Xinhua reported that the researchers from the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History named the dinosaur "Asiatyrannus xui" in honour of the Chinese scientist Xu Xing.

The study, titled "The first deep-snouted tyrannosaur from Upper Cretaceous Ganzhou City of southeastern China", was published on Thursday (Jul 25). These species are distinguished from the others by their enormous bodies and deeply curved noses.

The study mentioned that the earliest tyrannosaurs appeared in the Middle Jurassic, around 165 million years ago. "They became the apex predators in their respective ecologies during the final 20 million years of the Cretaceous in Asia and western North America," it added.

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As quoted by Interesting Engineering, Dr Wenjie Zheng said: "Tyrannosauroids are the most distinctive, best known, and most intensively studied groups of dinosaurs, and are represented by almost 30 species."

The study mentioned that the new species of tyrannosaur lived approximately 72 to 66 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period.

Zheng said that the fossil includes the nearly entire cranium, tail vertebrae and bones from the hind limbs. The researchers have said that this deep-snouted tyrannosaur is said to be the first ever found in Southern China.

The skull measures 47.5 centimetres in length and the body length was approximately half that of Qianzhousaurus, which is estimated to reach around nine meters at similar growth stages.

The tyrannosaurs in Asia are predominantly found in northern China and Mongolia, with the exception being the long-snouted genus Qianzhousaurus from the Nanxiong Formation (Maastrichtian) in Nankang District of Ganzhou City, southeastern China, the study added.

(With inputs from agencies)