{"id":10216,"date":"2025-06-12T09:05:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T09:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=10216"},"modified":"2025-06-12T09:05:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T09:05:19","slug":"dragon-prince-fossil-is-closest-known-ancestor-of-t-rex-researchers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=10216","title":{"rendered":"‘Dragon Prince’ fossil is closest known ancestor of T rex, researchers say"},"content":{"rendered":"
Scientists have uncovered a new species of dinosaur that they say rewrites the evolutionary history of tyrannosaurs \u2014 and the discovery was hiding in plain sight for over 50 years inside a Mongolian museum.<\/p>\n

Named Khankhuuluu mongoliensis, meaning “Dragon Prince of Mongolia”, the species was identified from two partial skeletons originally discovered in the early 1970s during Soviet-era fossil expeditions in Mongolia.<\/p>\n

These fossils had been stored and previously classified as Alectrosaurus, an already known species, until a closer look revealed distinctive tyrannosaur features.<\/p>\n

Now recognised as the closest known ancestor of all tyrannosaurs, Khankhuuluu is estimated to be 86 million years old. It fills a crucial gap in the family tree of these formidable predators, which include the legendary Tyrannosaurus rex.<\/p>\n

“This discovery shows us that, before tyrannosaurs became the kings, they were princes,” said Prof Darla Zelenitsky, a palaeontologist at the University of Calgary in Canada. She co-authored the study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature.<\/p>\n

The lead researcher, PhD student Jared Voris, described the species as a transitional form. “They were these really small, fleet-footed predators that lived in the shadows of other apex predatory dinosaurs,” he said.<\/p>\n

Khankhuuluu bridges the evolutionary gap between those earlier, nimble hunters of the Jurassic and the massive, bone-crushing tyrants like T. rex that ruled during the Late Cretaceous.<\/p>\n

The fossil shows early signs of skull features that would later define tyrannosaurs\u2019 dominance, including adaptations in the nasal bone structure that helped develop powerful bite forces.<\/p>\n

“We see features in its nasal bone that eventually gave tyrannosaurs those very powerful bite forces,” Voris said.<\/p>\n

Those powerful jaws would later allow species like T. rex to tackle larger prey and even crush bone, a hallmark of their predatory success.<\/p>\n

The species name, Khankhuuluu, combines Mongolian words to mean \u201cDragon Prince\u201d, a nod to its ancient roots and its evolutionary status. “‘Prince’ refers to this being an early, smaller tyrannosauroid,” Zelenitsky explained.<\/p>\n

Tyrannosauroids are a superfamily of bipedal carnivorous dinosaurs. Although their later descendants grew into some of the largest predators to walk the Earth, their earliest members were much smaller and more agile.<\/p>\n

The discovery also underscores how tyrannosaurs migrated and adapted. During the Late Cretaceous, land bridges between Siberia and Alaska enabled dinosaur species to move between Asia and North America.<\/p>\n

“That movement back and forth between the continents basically pushed the evolution of different tyrannosaur groups,” Voris said.<\/p>\n

The find further highlights the value of museum collections, where unrecognised fossils may still hold the key to major discoveries.<\/p>\n

“I remember getting a text from him \u2014 that he thought this was a new species,” recalled Prof Zelenitsky.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists have uncovered a new species of dinosaur that they say rewrites the evolutionary history of tyrannosaurs \u2014 and the discovery was hiding in plain sight for over 50 years inside a Mongolian museum. Named Khankhuuluu mongoliensis, meaning “Dragon Prince of Mongolia”, the species was identified from two partial skeletons originally discovered in the early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}