Dilong
| Dilong | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Skeletal reconstruction of D. paradoxus |
||||||||||||
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Lower Cretaceous (late Valanginium to Hauterivium ) | ||||||||||||
| 136.4 to 130.7 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Dilong | ||||||||||||
| Xu et al., 2004 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Dilong ("imperial dragon") is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the early Lower Cretaceous of East Asia . At the time of the first scientific description in 2004, the genus, to which only the type species D. paradoxus belongs, was one of the oldest tyrannosauroids found to date.
This tyrannosauroid early form reached a length of 1.5 meters, so it was rather small compared to later representatives of this group. Dilong fossil evidence comes from the 136 to 131 million year old Yixian Formation in the Chinese province of Liaoning . This animal had a high probability of Proto springs , like many other Coelurosaurier .
The generic name comes from the Chinese word Dilong or Ti-Lung for earth dragon , but its small size and proto-feathers contradict the appearance of this mythological being. A total of four relatively well-preserved skeletons of Dilong found. Like other early tyrannosaurs, this genus still had three fingers on each long arms, while the later tyrannosaurs like Tyrannosaurus had short arms with only two fingers each.
literature
- Xing Xu , Mark A. Norell , Xuewen Kuang, Xiaolin Wang, Qi Zhao, Chengkai Jia: Basal tyrannosauroids from China and evidence for protofeathers in tyrannosauroids. In: Nature . Vol. 431, No. 7009, 2004, pp. 680-684, doi : 10.1038 / nature02855 .
Web links
- Jeff Hecht: T. rex descended from feathered ancestor. In: NewScientist. October 6, 2004
