The newly identified T. Rex ancestor is

More than 85 million years ago, an ancestor with the smallest body of Tyrannosaurus rex wandered through the plains of Mongolia. The identity of the dinosaur was unknown, until now.

In a study published Wednesday in Nature, scientists describe the identification of a new tyrannosauroid called Khankhuulu Mongoliensis. Apex predators, including the T. Rexeventually it arose from these smallest body tyranosauroids, study researchers said.

“This species, Khankhuuluu, is the missing link between the smallest and previous forms and the predators of the largest apex,” the Paleontologist told News, the paleontologist to give it Zelenitsky, professor at the University of Calgary and co -author of study study.

The Khankhuulu skeleton was discovered in Mongolia in the Gobi desert in 1972 or 1973, but it was not scientifically studied until a few years later, Zelenitsky said. The remains were identified by the Paleontologist of Mongolia, Altangerel Perle, such as Alecrosaurus Olsoni, another dark species. After it was erroneously identified, the bones became part of a collection of museums and were relatively intact for almost 50 years.

Known as medium -grade tyrannosauroids, these smaller body predators were intermediate evolutionary, according to the study. During the period when Khankhuuluu lived in Mongolia, the tyrannosaurus began to grow and assume the characteristics of apex predators. It is not known much more about these elusive eluroids due to fragmentary fossil remains, but the researchers said the dinosaurs weighed around 1,700 pounds. They were one of the largest predators in the ecosystem at that time.

“It is essentially the immediate ancestor of the family of tyrannosaurus,” Zelenitsky said.

A surprise discovery

The postdoctoral academic of the University of Calgary and the co -author of the study Jared Voris traveled to Mongolia a few years before to investigate the bones of several tyrannosaurus and, in the process, he obtained access to see the bones of what they would then determine are the Khankhuuluu.

Voris thought that the remains could be something important, since he often saw that references to the specimens appeared, but after he began to examine the bones, he knew it could be something special. While studying the individual characteristics of the bones, one of the things he noticed was that the teeth of the Khankhuulu could not crush the bone, said Voris, a defining characteristic of the tyrannosaurus predator of the largest apex.

“This animal had characteristics that we had never seen in more of our iconic tyrannosaurus,” Voris said.

He sent a text message to Zelenitsky from Mongolia that “thought it could be a new species.” Zelenitsky said he replied: “I said, great, keep looking at this so we can be sure that this is a new species.”

The two paleontologists are not new in innovative scientific discoveries: they have had several. In 2023Zelenitsky was part of a team that identified a Tyrannosaurus fossil with a stomach meal, and Voris discovered a new species of tyrannosaurine dinosaur, Thanatoteristes degootorum, whose name of the genre translates into “Reaper of Death.”

“Rewrite a family history of tyrannosaurus”

These Asian tyrannosauroids finally crossed North America using a Northern Land Bridge between Alaska and Siberia, said Zelenitsky. Dinosaurs used these land bridges, which appeared periodically in the last 100 million years, to travel between Asia and North America.

And from it, these tyrannosauroids evolved and transformed into apex predators. T. Rex is the MORE MORE LAND PREDATOR Always to live, and for a long time there has been a fascination with the dinosaur that has been extinguished for about 66 million years.

The study co -authors said that the new identification shows that there are still great discoveries that are made in science. “What really began at the same time as a discovery of a new species ended with a kind of re -writing family history of tyrannosaurus,” Zelenitsky said.

• Tyrannosaurus Rex
• Dinosaur