Home · Science · Sep 29 archive
New Dinosaur Discovery Challenges Evolution Theories
Developing
In Short: The discovery of Kayrasaurus changliensis provides an important new data point for understanding early therizinosaurian evolution.
Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of therizinosaur, named Kayrasaurus changliensis, based on a nearly complete skeleton found in northeastern China.
This dinosaur lived during the Early Cretaceous epoch, approximately 125 million years ago, in what is now China.
Dr. Xing Xu, a paleontologist with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yunnan University, and colleagues noted that therizinosauria is a rare group of theropod dinosaurs known for their bizarre anatomy.
Kayrasaurus changliensis is the largest therizinosaurian dinosaur known from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota, a fossil-rich ecosystem.
The discovery of Kayrasaurus changliensis provides an important new data point for understanding early therizinosaurian evolution.
What's still developing
- This suggests the dinosaurs may have occupied different ecological niches, though the authors call the idea provisional and say more complete fossils are needed to test it.