Triops Longicaudatus
Triops Longicaudatus Red
Triops Longicaudatus
Triops Longicaudatus Red
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The Dragon Prince of Mongolia: How a fossil discovery rewrites the history of the T. rex
A discovery in the archives of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences has brought the evolution of Tyrannosaurus rex into a new focus. For decades, bone remains were stored unnoticed in the drawers of the Institute of Palaeontology in Ulan Bator until a Canadian doctoral student discovered them by chance. The fossils turned out to be the remains of a previously unknown species of dinosaur. This is considered to be the direct ancestor of the famous T. rex.
A treasure in the archive: Forgotten bones shed new light on tyrannosaurs
The story begins in the early 1970s, when researchers in south-east Mongolia unearthed bones that were initially attributed to the already known predatory dinosaur Alectrosaurus. The fossils then disappeared into the archives and were forgotten. It was not until around 50 years later, during a visit by Canadian palaeontologist Jared Voris, that they came back into focus. Voris was perplexed: the bones did not match Alectrosaurus. Together with a research team led by Darla Zelenitsky from the University of Calgary, the investigation began.
What the researchers found was a minor sensation: the bones came from two individuals of a previously unknown dinosaur species. Their characteristics differed significantly from those of previously known species. The results of the analysis were published in the journal Nature and caused quite a stir in palaeontology.
From dragon prince to king of the dinosaurs
The newly discovered species was given the name Khankhuuluu mongoliensis, which means ‘Dragon Prince of Mongolia’. Unlike its famous descendant, the dragon prince was significantly smaller: it measured around four metres in length and weighed only about 750 kilograms, roughly the same as a heavy riding horse. Researchers suspect that this diminutive hunter played a central role in the early evolutionary history of tyrannosaurs.
What is particularly exciting is that the study suggests that Khankhuuluu spread from Asia to North America via a land bridge that once connected Siberia with Alaska. This migration route could have played a key role in the later development of tyrannosaurs in North America, where they reached their evolutionary peak in Tyrannosaurus rex, the undisputed king of the Late Cretaceous period.
With the discovery of the ‘dragon prince’, researchers are gaining new insights into the origins of the world’s most famous predatory dinosaurs. The previously unclear and fragmentary phylogeny of the tyrannosaurs has been given new contours by this discovery, and a chapter that has been hidden in the archives of history for a surprisingly long time.
