Dinosaur find resolves T-Rex mystery

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh, along with US and Russian colleagues, discovered the fossilised remains of the animal in Uzbekistan.

They have named it Timurlengia.

A study of the 90-million-year-old beast suggested its ears and brain were crucial in Tyrannosaurs' dominance.

"We have a totally new species of dinosaur," explained lead researcher Dr Stephen Brusatte from the University of Edinburgh.

"It's one of the very closest cousins of T-Rex, but a lot smaller - about the size of a horse.

"And it comes from the middle part of the Cretaceous period - a point where we have a huge gap in the fossil record."

This "frustrating" gap has made T-Rex - which was found later in the period and was up to 13m head to tail - something of an evolutionary mystery. That is what this find has helped to resolve.

'Super-dominant'

"It has features of its bones that are also found in T-Rex," said Dr Brusatte. "So this is evolving features that would eventually allow T-Rex to become this super-dominant top-of-the-food-chain animal."

The team studied about 25 sections of Timurlengia's skeleton, piecing it together to work out its size and shape.

Most revealing was a part of the animal's skull, which the team scanned to work out the shape of its brain and inner ear - an attempt to build a picture of its sensory capabilities.

"Its brain and ear - which we can tell from CT scans - were almost identical to T-Rex," said Dr Brusatte.

"So it had all the central processing unit there, all the intelligence, all the keen senses of T-Rex and maybe that's what allowed T-Rex to become so big."

Kazinform refers to BBC.com