Who Was King Before T. rex? Dinosaur Fossil Reveals New Apex Predator

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Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis

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A brand-new dinosaur from the lower Upper Cretaceous of Uzbekistan, Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis, was explained from a single maxilla fossil. The University of Tsukuba- led research study group approximated that this carcharodontosaurian weighed over 1000 kg and determined 7.5– 8.0 meters in length, much bigger than formerly explained predators from the exact same development. The fossil’s age, place, and co-occurrence with the smaller sized tyrannosaurid Timurlengia clarified the shift from carcharodontosaurians to tyrannosaurids inhabiting the peak predator specific niche. Credit: University of Tsukuba

University of Tsukuba scientists have actually explained a brand-new peak predator from the lower Upper Cretaceous of Central Asia, Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis, which existed together with a smaller sized tyrannosauroid.

Iconic tyrannosauroids like T. rex notoriously controlled the top of the food web at the end of the reign of the dinosaurs. But they didn’t constantly hold that leading area.

In a brand-new research study released in Royal Society Open Science, a research study group led by the University of Tsukuba has actually explained a brand-new genus and types coming from the Carcharodontosauria, a group of medium- to large-sized meat-eating dinosaurs that preceded the tyrannosauroids as peak predators.

The brand-new dinosaur, called Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis, was discovered in the lower Upper Cretaceous Bissekty Formation of the Kyzylkum Desert in Uzbekistan, and for that reason lived about 90 million years earlier. Two different evolutionary analyses support category of the brand-new dinosaur as the very first conclusive carcharodontosaurian found in the Upper Cretaceous of Central Asia.

“We described this new genus and species based on a single isolated fossil, a left maxilla, or upper jawbone,” discusses research study very first author Assistant Professor KoheiTanaka “Among theropod dinosaurs, the size of the maxilla can be utilized to approximate the animal’s size due to the fact that it associates with thigh length, a reputable sign of body size. Thus, we had the ability to approximate that Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis had a mass of over 1,000 kg, and was roughly 7.5 to 8.0 meters in length, higher than the length of a mature African elephant.”

This size significantly surpasses that of any other predator understood from the Bissekty Formation, consisting of the small-sized tyrannosauroid Timurlengia explained from the exact same development. Therefore, the freshly called dinosaur most likely topped the food web in its early Late Cretaceous community.

The genus’s name is fittingly royal; Ulughbegsaurus is called for Ulugh Beg, the 15 th century mathematician, astronomer, and sultan of the Timurid Empire of CentralAsia The types is called for the nation where the fossil was found.

Before the Late Cretaceous, carcharodontosaurians like Ulughbegsaurus vanished from the paleocontinent that consisted of CentralAsia This disappearance is believed to have actually been connected to the increase of tyrannosauroids as peak predators, however this shift has actually stayed badly comprehended due to the fact that of the deficiency of pertinent fossils.

Senior author Professor Yoshitsugu Kobayashi at the Hokkaido University Museum discusses “The discovery of Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis fills a crucial space in the fossil record, exposing that carcharodontosaurians were prevalent throughout the continent from Europe to EastAsia As among the current enduring carcharodontosaurians in Laurasia, this big predator’s coexistence with a smaller sized tyrannosauroid exposes crucial restraints on the shift of the peak predator specific niche in the Late Cretaceous.”

Reference: “A new carcharodontosaurian theropod dinosaur occupies apex predator niche in the early Late Cretaceous of Uzbekistan” by Kohei Tanaka, Otabek Ulugbek Ogli Anvarov, Darla K. Zelenitsky, Akhmadjon Shayakubovich Ahmedshaev and Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, 8 September 2021, Royal Society Open Science
DOI: 10.1098/ rsos.210923