Table of Contents
Picture a land free of humans and automobiles. A world where, instead of tall buildings, there were only tall trees. In such a world, the Yutyrannus dinosaur roamed freely. Since its discovery, the Yutyrannus dinosaur has become the talk of the scientific town.
Odd and unique!
You wouldn’t expect a predator dinosaur to be cuddly and fuzzy, right? But that is exactly what the Yutyrannus was. With feathers as long as , the Yutyrannus was quite fluffy. But in the realm of feathered animals, this dinosaur is a bit of an odd creature. Most feathered animals that scientists had up until now discovered were small. Not the Yutyrannus, though. With an average length of 7–9 meters and a weight of 1400 Kilograms, the Yutyrannus proudly broke this tradition. This figure is even grand in comparison to the length of the great Tyrannosaurus rex. Any guesses about the length of the T. rex? It’s 12 meters! If you want to get a better idea about how majestic the dinosaur was, it is important to know that the average height of a human being is approximately 1.70 meters! That is how tiny we are in comparison to these dinosaurs.
But don’t start jumping to the conclusion that the feathers allowed the dinosaurs to fly! The feathers of the dinosaurs were primitive and quite different from what modern birds have. It is also believed that such feathers might have been used as a form of display during the mating season.
The presence of feathers in dinosaurs holds tremendous significance for scientists who study the evolution of animals. It gives evidence to the commonly held belief that today’s modern birds evolved from the mighty dinosaurs of the past.
The discovery of Yutyrannus
While we never got to see a living version of the Yutyrannus, fossils of the species are the reason we now have plenty of evidence about the height, weight, and other physical attributes of the dinosaur. Three skeleton fossils (an adult, a subadult, and a juvenile) of Yutyrannus huali were discovered in China by the scientist Xing Xu. The three fossils were discovered together and close to each other, which led to the belief that the Yutyrannus was a social animal and might have hunted in packs. Based on the fossil evidence, it is also believed that the Yutyrannus had a very flat tongue, like that of a crocodile. It had short arms, with three fingers on each hand, and long, powerfully muscular legs. However, the cause of death and extinction of the Yutyrannus is not yet known.
Who’s your ancestor?
The Yutyrannus is believed to have roamed the earth 131–120 million years ago. It was a very vibrant period when continents were separating and dinosaurs were evolving. One particular relative of Yutyrannus that came into existence much later is the very famous Tyrannosaurus rex. But unlike Yutyrannus, T. rex did not have any feathers. Rather it had scaley skin, which we know because of skin impressions taken from fossils.
We may not know a lot about this majestic animal, but it surely is an evolutionary marvel. Dinosaur lovers all over the world simply adore this creature.
Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease: 60.1
Flesch Kincaid Grade Level: 8.3
Glossary
Yutyrannus: A dinosaur with feathers
Tyrannosaurus rex: A famous dinosaur believed to have evolved from Yutyrannus
Insulation: The process of keeping the body warm
Fossils: Ancient, preserved remains of animals
Social animal: An animal that prefers to live in a community of its kind
Read More:
How Did Dinosaurs Become Birds?
References
- Dinosaurs – Yutyrannus huali. (n.d.). The Australian Museum. https://australian.museum/learn/dinosaurs/fact-sheets/yutyrannus-huali/#:~:text=Yutyrannus%20was%20a%20gigantic%20bipedal,estimated%20length%20of%2090%20centimetres.
- Yong, E. (2021, May 3). Yutyrannus, a giant tyrannosaur with feathers. Science. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/yutyrannus-a-giant-tyrannosaur-with-feathers#:~:text=All%20three%20specimens%20had%20long,feathered%20from%20head%20to%20toe.
- Hutchinson, J. R., Bates, K. T., Molnár, J., Allen, V., & Makovicky, P. J. (2011). A Computational Analysis of Limb and Body Dimensions in Tyrannosaurus rex with Implications for Locomotion, Ontogeny, and Growth. PLOS ONE, 6(10), e26037. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026037
- Roser, M. (2013, October 8). Human height. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/human-height
- Ksepka, D. T. (2020). Feathered dinosaurs. Current Biology, 30(22), R1347–R1353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.10.007
- Black, R. (2012, April 5). Scientists discover a gigantic feathered tyrannosaur. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/scientists-discover-a-gigantic-feathered-tyrannosaur-172633563/#:~:text=The%20paper%20mentions%20three%20Yutyrannus,follows%20suits%20with%20this%20discovery
- Dong, L., Roček, Z., Wang, Y., & Jones, M. E. H. (2013). Anurans from the Lower Cretaceous Jehol Group of Western Liaoning, China. PLOS ONE, 8(7), e69723. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069723
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