Timurlengia euotica, a horse-sized fleet-footed dinosaur that lived about 90 million years ago, evolved into the colossal king of the dinosaurs, the Tyrannosaurs Rex, suggests a new study.
Hans Sues, of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and an author of the study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said an examination of the Timurlengia euotica's fossils helped researchers make the connection with T. rex, noted
Smithsonian Science News.
"This fossil shows that tyrannosaurs developed their advanced head first," Sues told the Smithsonian. "Timurlengia skull, though much smaller than that of T. rex, shows a sophisticated brain that would have led to keen eyesight, smell and hearing."
The
PNAS study said Timurlengia euotica helped answer the 20-million year-plus gap in which researchers wondered how T. rex evolved into the dominate dinosaurs of its time.
"We describe the first distinct tyrannosauroid species from this gap, based on a highly derived braincase and a variety of other skeletal elements from the Turonian (ca. 90–92 million years ago) of Uzbekistan," said the study.
"This taxon is phylogenetically intermediate between the oldest basal tyrannosauroids and the latest Cretaceous forms. It had yet to develop the giant size and extensive cranial pneumaticity of T. rex and kin but does possess the highly derived brain and inner ear characteristic of the latest Cretaceous species."
Researchers suggested that T. rex grew quickly during the late Cretaceous period with its keen predator senses being developed when it was smaller.
Fossil evidence suggested that the Tyrannosaurus grew to about 40 feet long and about 15 to 20 feet tall, according to
National Geographic. Despite its large size, the T. rex was able to move swiftly because of its strong thighs and long, powerful tail, noted National Geographic.
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