![prehistoric kingdom yutyrannus prehistoric kingdom yutyrannus](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/prehistoric-kingdom/images/d/dd/Centrosaurus_Prehistoric_Kingdom.png)
By comparing its anatomy with other tyrannosaurs it was also deduced that Yutyrannus was not a direct ancestor to T-Rex, but instead belonged to a family of tyrannosaurs that split off during the Early Cretaceous, meaning that Yutyrannus was essentially T-Rexs great great uncle.
![prehistoric kingdom yutyrannus prehistoric kingdom yutyrannus](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71pE4s6xLpL.jpg)
Unlike other large tyrannosaurs Yutyrannus shares many features with other early tyrannosaurs, such as possessing three fingers instead of two and a lack of a specialised weight-bearing middle toe (used by later tyrannosaurs to support their weight). While other dinosaurs like Therizinosaurus and Gigantoraptor are likely to have had feathers, there’s been no direct evidence found yet, so Yutyrannus keeps the crown for now. This makes Yutyrannus the largest animal with direct definitive evidence of feathers ever discovered. However Yutyrannus bucked this trend by growing up to 9 metres long, 3 metres tall and weighing up to 1 and a half tonnes. Previously other known feathered tyrannosaurs, such as Dilong and Guanlong (both also discovered in China), were relatively small ranging around the sizes as modern big cats. One of the most surprising observations about Yutyrannus is not only that it had feathers, but that this was a big animal.
![prehistoric kingdom yutyrannus prehistoric kingdom yutyrannus](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c7/1f/c0/c71fc0be39775fb7715fa2bbfcce7aaf.gif)
So in this case we have a vividly detailed picture of this particular animal. This is remarkable as tyrannosaurs are often only known from incomplete fossils. The Yutyrannus fossils discovered by Xu and his team consisted of an adult and two juveniles, all of them almost complete. Xu is a big name in the world of contemporary palaeontology as described and named a lot of these feathered dinos, such as the “four winged” Microraptor and another feathered tyrannosaur called Dilong. A large majority of the feathered dinosaur finds in the last few decades originated from this area. This particular corner of the world is extremely rich in dinosaur fossils, mostly dating to the Early Cretaceous period (125 million years ago). Yutyrannus was discovered in the Yixian formation, in the Liaoning Province of China by a Chinese palaeontologist named professor Xing Xu. However what if I were to tell you that this picture isn’t completely accurate, and that at least some tyrannosaurs were in fact a lot more on the soft and fluffy side! While it’s still being debated to this day whether the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex had feathers (a story for another blog!), there was another tyrannosaur that not only possessed feathers, but was completely covered in them! Revealed to the world in 2012 Yutyrannus huali (meaning “Beautiful Feathered Tyrant” in a mix of Mandarin and Latin) shaked pre-existing ideas about Tyrannosaurs to the core.
#PREHISTORIC KINGDOM YUTYRANNUS FULL#
Their traditional look has been set in stone in the public eye for decades, being immortalised in various media, of a giant scaly lizard with tiny arms and a massive head full of sharp, banana shaped teeth. Tyrannosaurs are arguably the most famous members of the great dinosaur pantheon. Reconstruction of Yutyrannus huali, Feathers and all!