gigantic Birdlike Dino Discovered in China 
This artist's rendering puts feathers and flesh on the fossil bones of a massive birdlike dinosaur recently unearthed in the Gobi desert in northern China.
The newly discovered dino, Gigantoraptor erlianensis—shown looming over much smaller dinosaurs—probably represents the largest feathered animal ever known, Chinese paleontologists say.
The beaked creature weighed about 1.5 tons and is the biggest toothless dinosaur found to date, according to a team led by Xing Xu from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing.
The dinosaur, described in this week's issue of the journal Nature, lived some 70 million years ago.
Despite its fearsome appearance and 8-inch (20-centimeter) claws, Gigantoraptor wasn't necessarily a meat-chasing predator. Experts suggest mollusks, seeds, and dinosaur eggs as possible alternatives for its menu.
The newly discovered dino, Gigantoraptor erlianensis—shown looming over much smaller dinosaurs—probably represents the largest feathered animal ever known, Chinese paleontologists say.
The beaked creature weighed about 1.5 tons and is the biggest toothless dinosaur found to date, according to a team led by Xing Xu from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing.
The dinosaur, described in this week's issue of the journal Nature, lived some 70 million years ago.
Despite its fearsome appearance and 8-inch (20-centimeter) claws, Gigantoraptor wasn't necessarily a meat-chasing predator. Experts suggest mollusks, seeds, and dinosaur eggs as possible alternatives for its menu.
 Gigantoraptor stood as tall as a giraffe, measuring more than 16 feet (5 meters) high, say Chinese researchers who recently discovered the birdlike dinosaur. The giant creature reached lengths up to 26 feet (8 meters) and weighed as much as a rhinoceros.  This dinosaur femur is so large that Chinese fossil hunters in the Gobi desert first mistook it for the leg bone of a huge plant-munching sauropod. It wasn't until further fossils were uncovered that the previously unknown Gigantoraptor was revealed. The new species is all the more surprising for belonging to a group of small, birdlike dinos called oviraptorosaurs. Gigantoraptor was about 300 times heavier than its earlier feathered relatives but likely carried similar plumes on its tail and arms, researchers say. The study team suggests these feathers could have been used for display or for incubating its eggs. The fossil showed other body features previously found only in birds. Most theories suggest birds evolved from two-legged dinosaurs that became progressively smaller over time, but Gigantoraptor's huge size appears to contradict this evolutionary trend. "Now after the discovery of Gigantoraptor, things get more complicated, " lead researcher Xing Xu said. |
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