Latest news with #BayanshireeFormation
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Newly Discovered Tyrannosaur Relative "Prince of Dragons" Set T. rex Up to Rule
This summer's biggest movie, Jurassic World Rebirth (opening July 2, get tickets now!) picks up five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion (now streaming on Peacock!). The dinosaurs are on the loose, having reclaimed a place in the global ecosystem, but they're struggling to survive on a planet that has changed dramatically in the last 66 million years or so. While many have died out, some have found limited success in small suitable environments around the world. Zora Bennet (Scarlett Johansson) takes a team into a secret island research facility on Ile Sant-Hubert to recover genetic materials from the largest remaining species. It's believed that the samples are the key to breakthrough medical advances. Along the way, they discover some previously unknown species including a mutant Tyrannosaur known as Distortus rex. Here in the real world, we're stilling finding new dinos, albeit far less alive. Recently, paleontologists unveiled the fossilized remains of a new dinosaur species, Khankhuuluu mongoliensis, the closest known relative of Tyrannosaurs like the infamous T. rex. The specimen was found in the lower Upper Cretaceous portion of the Bayanshiree Formation in southeastern Mongolia in the 1970s. From there, it went to Mongolia's Institute of Paleontology where it remained largely unexamined for the last 50 years. Paleontologists of the time identified it as Alectrosaurus, a previously known dinosaur from Asia. In 2023, research led by University of Calgary PhD student Jared Voris and UC researcher Dr. Darla Zelenitsky revealed features which set it apart from its predatory peers. The results of that study were recently published in the journal Nature. It dates to about 86 million years ago, a time when earlier large predators had recently gone extinct and niches were available for evolution to fill. Khankhuuluu was a medium-sized predator which answered the call. It was only about one-third or one-half the size of a fully grown T. rex, but it laid the foundation for its larger and more famous descendants. 'This new species provides us the window into the ascent stage of Tyrannosaur evolution; right when they're transitioning from small predators to their apex predator form," Voris said in a statement. Perhaps Khankhuuluu's most notable features are a pair of tiny horns just over the eye sockets. Those horns would later evolve to be much more prominent in species like Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus. They were probably used to intimidate rivals and impress romantic interests. Long before that, however, Khankhuuluu made moves which would set up T. rex to rule prehistory. "Khankhuuluu, or a closely related species, would have immigrated to North America from Asia around 85 million years ago," explains Zelenitsky, a paleontologist and associate professor in the Department of Earth, Energy and Environment. "Our study provides solid evidence that large Tyrannosaurs first evolved in North America as a result of this immigration event." Twenty million years after Khankhuuluu first appeared, its descendants were dominating the Cretaceous landscape. At least until the asteroid closed the curtain on the age of dinosaurs. The dinosaurs are back in Jurassic World Rebirth, .
CTV News
11-06-2025
- Science
- CTV News
University of Calgary paleontologists discover closest-known ancestor of T. rex
UCalgary paleontologists Jared Voris (left) and Darla Zelenitsky (right). (Photo by Riley Brandt/University of Calgary) The University of Calgary's sports teams may be called the 'Dinos,' but the school's paleontologists just lived up to the name in a much bigger way — by unearthing the closest-known ancestor to the legendary Tyrannosaurs rex. A new species of dinosaur named Khankhuuluu, meaning 'dragon prince' in Mongolian, has been identified by a team of researchers led by UCalgary paleontologists Darla Zelenitsky and Jared Voris. The discovery, published in the journal Nature, offers a rare glimpse into a key transitional stage in Tyrannosaur evolution — when they were still mid-sized, agile predators rather than bone-crushing giants. 'This new species provides us the window into the ascent stage of Tyrannosaur evolution,' said Voris, a PhD candidate in the department of earth, energy and environment. 'Right when they're transitioning from small predators to their apex predator form, this was a fast, nimble mesopredator — something like a prehistoric coyote.' The Khankhuuluu dinosaur What the Khankhuuluu dinosaur looks like. (Illustration by Julius Csotonyi) Khankhuuluu lived approximately 86-million years ago and weighed about 750 kilograms — the size of a modern horse, and a far cry from the massive Tyrannosaurus rex famously depicted in the Jurassic Park movie franchise. Its fossils were originally found in the Bayanshiree Formation in southeastern Mongolia in the 1970s by paleontologist Altangerel Perle who likened the fossils to another medium-sized Tyrannosaur called Alectrosaurus from China. The Khankhuuluu dinosaur The Khankhuuluu dinosaur. (Photo by Darla Zelenitsky) Voris went to Mongolia in 2023 to study fossils at the Institute of Paleontology and soon realized there were features that differentiated them from the Alectrosaurus. He found that unlike its iconic descendants, Khankhuuluu lacked the bone-crushing bite and massive build. The Khankhuuluu dinosaur What the Khankhuuluu dinosaur looks like. (Illustration by Jared Voris) Instead, it featured a long, shallow skull and small rudimentary horns, likely used in mating displays or intimidation — features that later evolved into the more elaborate forms seen in Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus. 'The first real identifier was that the nasal bone was had a big hollow cavity inside of it – and this is something we never see in Tyrannosaurs, it's always been this really just massive bone so they can bite down really hard,' said Voris. 'That was the first clue that really told me that this was something else.' Rewriting the Tyrannosaurs family tree The Khankhuuluu dinosaur What the Khankhuuluu dinosaur looks like. (Illustration by Masato Hattori) The discovery also has major implications for the geographic story of Tyrannosaurs. According to Zelenitsky, Khankhuuluu – or a close relative – likely migrated from Asia to North America around 85 million years ago, where it gave rise to the line of apex predators that culminated in T. rex. 'Our study provides solid evidence that large Tyrannosaurs first evolved in North America as a result of this immigration event,' said Zelenitsky. The Khankhuuluu dinosaur Jared Voris. (Photo by Francois Therrien) The fossil record also suggests that the movement of Tyrannosaurs between Asia and North America was more limited and directional than previously thought. After evolving in North America, some Tyrannosaurs later returned to Asia, splitting into two evolutionary paths — one leading to massive predators like T. rex, and another to long-snouted, medium-sized species nicknamed 'Pinocchio rexes.' The Khankhuuluu dinosaur Darla Zelenitsky. (Darla Zelenitsky) Zelenitsky says this discovery now provides a backstory to the evolutionary process of an entire dinosaur species. 'This is so important because it really told us what an ancestral Tyrannosaur looked like, and we ended up rewriting the family tree of Tyrannosaurs,' she said. The Khankhuuluu dinosaur What the Khankhuuluu dinosaur looks like. (Illustration by Masato Hattori) 'But what's missing is some of the earlier Tyrannosauroids, the animals that are older than Khankhuuluu, because that material tends to be less well preserved. 'There's not as many specimens, so those need to be studied in more detail to figure out the far back ancestors of Tyrannosaurs.' The Khankhuuluu dinosaur What the Khankhuuluu dinosaur looks like. (Illustration by Jared Voris) The UCalgary team now plans to dig even deeper into the past in search of the earlier ancestors that preceded Khankhuuluu. In the meantime, the university's namesake Dinos can now take pride in something no rival can match: their very own link to the king of the dinosaurs.
Gizmodo
11-06-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
Newly Discovered Dinosaur Is T. Rex's Awkward Cousin
Scientists have discovered a new species of tyrannosauroid—the group of dinosaurs that includes Tyrannosaurus rex. The finding offers new insights into how massive predators like T. rex evolved, transforming the tyrannosauroid tree of life, according to a study published today. In the early 1970s, researchers unearthed two partial tyrannosauroid skeletons in the Bayanshiree Formation, a geological formation in Mongolia. Researchers originally believed the fossils were from a previously discovered tyrannosauroid species from China, Alectrosaurus olseni. Paleontologists hailed the discovery of A. olseni as significant and said a comparative phylogenetic analysis was long overdue, the authors wrote in the study. Recently, an international team of researchers led by paleontologists Jared Voris and Darla Zelenitsky from the University of Calgary finally reexamined the fossils. After comparing the morphology of the tyrannosauroid remains to similar species, they assigned the fossils to a new genus and species: Khankhuuluu mongoliensis. Their findings are published in Nature. Khankhuuluu was a medium-sized predator—roughly the size of a grizzly bear—with a skull up to 27 inches long (70 centimeters) and a femur measuring nearly 26 inches (67 cm). The iconic T. rex was just one member of a group of fearsome predatory dinosaurs known as Eutyrannosaurians. These dinosaurs—characterized by their enormous size, powerful jaws, short arms, and long legs—dominated the landscape around 66 million years ago. However, how these massive creatures evolved from their smaller, ganglier ancestors remains unclear. This gap exists because of a scarcity of fossils from 'mid-grade' tyrannosauroids, species that represent an evolutionary middle ground between the group's earliest, smallest members and the colossal T. rex. According to the study, Khankhuuluu mongoliensis fits this middle ground in terms of size and shares features with both the massive Tyrannosaurini and the small, shallow-snouted Alioramini clades that came later. In the tyrannosauroid evolutionary tree, K. mongoliensis is positioned just outside of the Eutyrannosaurians, having branched off about 90 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period, the study suggests. The specimen is described as one of the 'best-represented mid-grade tyrannosauroids' and serves as an 'exemplar ancestral form for the clade,' the authors wrote. Importantly, Khankhuuluu has features that characterize juvenile eutyrannosaurians, but not adults, including a slender build and longer forearms than legs. These findings highlight the importance of heterochrony—changes in the timing of developmental processes, such as delaying skull development—in tyrannosauroid evolution, indicating that Eutyrannosaurians went through a period of accelerated or prolonged growth as they matured. Based on the geographic distribution and morphological similarities between Khankhuuluu and other tyrannosauroids, the study proposes that mid-sized dinosaurs like Khankhuuluu initially spread from Asia to North America. There, they evolved into several types of Eutyrannosaurians, including T. rex, that remained in North America as they diversified in both form and ecological role. Later, tyrannosauroids migrated back to Asia, giving rise to the Alioramini and Tyrannosaurini clades. In yet another dispersal, Tyrannosaurini dispersed back to North America, where they evolved into the gigantic Tyrannosaurus species we know and love. They dominated as apex predators for 2 million years, until the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.
