New Dinosaur Species Discovered in China
Long Lost Cousin of the T. Rex Roamed North America and East Asia
by BRIAN BRAIKER
April 4, 2011
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Similar in size to the Tyrannasaurus rex, the newly discovered carnivorous teropod most likely stood 13 feet tall and 36 feet long, weighing in at 12,000 pounds.
"It was about T. Rex's size, but probably a little bit smaller," said David Hone from University College of Dublin, Ireland, who led the team that discovered it and published his findings in the journal Cretaceous Research. "It's about the closest thing to a T. Rex there is."
The dinosaur ran on its two hind legs and had puny arms and has been named Zhuchengtyrannaus magnus, which translates "Tyrant from Zhucheng." Its bones were found in a quarry in the city of Zhucheng, in eastern China's Shangdong Province, at the site of the largest concentration of dinosaur bones in the world. The area is believed to have once been a floodplain where thousands of dinosaur bodies washed together.
"It's an important find. Any time you find a new taxon, it's kind of a big deal" conceded Mark Norell curator of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. "Zhucheng is an amazing place and we are at a nascent stage of understanding everything that Zhucheng is going to provide for us in the future."
More:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/dinosaur-species-discovered-china/story?id=13293545