'It was like a grizzly bear compared to a coyote,' said U of C associate professor
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It stalked the earth as a predator, vastly overshadowing its contemporary Tyrannosaurus rex.
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But it’s only recently that the fossilized remains of the dinosaur, bigger and fiercer than the more famous meat eater, were identified with the help of a University of Calgary scientist.
The T-rex might well have been prey for the newly-coined Ulughbegasaurus around 90 million years ago, said Darla Zelenitsky, a U of C associate professor of paleontology.
“They probably kept the tyrannosaurus down, they were obviously better apex predators,” she said.
“The disappearance of (Ulughbegasaurus) likely allowed tyrannosaur species to become the apex predators of Asia and North America some 80 to 90 million years ago, who persisted in large forms like Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus, and T-rex.”
A Russian paleontologist probably discovered the dinosaur’s fossilized jaw in the 1980s during a dig in what was then the Soviet Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan, say researchers.
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It sat in the country’s State Geological Museum until it drew the interest of other researchers, including U of C alumnus Dr. Kohei Tanaka and Zelenitsky, who were seeking a missing piece of the predator dinosaur puzzle from that era.
Tanaka, who initially identified the fossils in 2019, is the first author of an article published by the Royal Society detailing the discovery.
Using virtual 3-D modelling, they linked fossilized teeth to the jaw and determined they had discovered a new species of dinosaur.
“The apex predator was missing from the species and now here it is,” said Zelenitsky, adding the era is well-studied and richly represented by numerous discoveries of dinosaur variants.
“I was surprised it took so long to identify such a large predator, so this is very exciting.”
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Five times larger than T-rex at the time
From the dimensions of its jaw, the animal’s size was likely 7.5 to eight metres in length, weighing more than 1,000 kilograms, she said.
By comparison, the Tyrannosaurus rex of its time hadn’t fully evolved into the giant hunter it would eventually become, weighing less than 200 kilograms and extending three to four metres from tail tip to nose.
“It was like a grizzly bear compared to a coyote,” she said.
The fossilized teeth show Ulughbegasaurus also differed in its hunting and eating practises from the T-Rex that would be huskier millions of years later, said Zelenitsky.
“It had slashing bites with blade-like teeth, whereas T-rex’s jaws were more for crushing bones,” she said.
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The newly discovered dinosaur vanished from the landscape some 89 million years ago and scientists aren’t certain why that is, though it could be the result of shifts in the environment or availability of prey, said the U of C paleontologist.
“Prey species like herbivorous dinosaurs may have changed if flora or vegetation changed, for example,” she said.
From a 79-million-year-old fossil, U of C scientists last year discovered a large meat-eating Alberta tyrannosaur they named Thanatotheristes, or “reaper of death.”
It was the first such discovery made in Canada in 50 years, say the researchers.
Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMieWh0dHBzOi8vY2FsZ2FyeWhlcmFsZC5jb20vbmV3cy9sb2NhbC1uZXdzL25ldy1kaW5vLXByZWRhdG9yLWJpZ2dlci10aGFuLXQtcmV4LW9mLWl0cy10aW1lLWlkZW50aWZpZWQtYnktdS1vZi1jLXJlc2VhcmNoZXLSAacBaHR0cHM6Ly9jYWxnYXJ5aGVyYWxkLmNvbS9uZXdzL2xvY2FsLW5ld3MvbmV3LWRpbm8tcHJlZGF0b3ItYmlnZ2VyLXRoYW4tdC1yZXgtb2YtaXRzLXRpbWUtaWRlbnRpZmllZC1ieS11LW9mLWMtcmVzZWFyY2hlci93Y20vM2M1NTVkNTYtZWQwZS00YzdhLWJiNDMtYThjYzcyOTEzM2MxL2FtcC8?oc=5
2021-09-07 23:19:50Z
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