Researchers have discovered a new species of long-snouted tyrannosaur, dubbed Pinocchio rex.
The ferocious dinosaur walked what is now Asia during the late Cretaceous period over 66 million years ago, a University of Edinburgh news release reported.
Pinocchio rex looked different from the average tyrannosaurus; it had a longer skull and narrower teeth than what is usually seen.
"This is a different breed of tyrannosaur. It has the familiar toothy grin of T. rex, but its snout was much longer and it had a row of horns on its nose. It might have looked a little comical, but it would have been as deadly as any other tyrannosaur, and maybe even a little faster and stealthier," Doctor Steve Brusatte, of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, and one of the authors of the study, said in the news release.
Scientists were unaware of the existence of long-snouted tyrannosaurs until remains called Qianzhousaurus sinensis were found in South China. Before the recent discovery only two of these fossils had ever been found, both were juveniles.
Researchers were not sure if the remains were examples of a new class of dinosaur or if they were simply at an early growth stage. The new specimen is believed to be almost full grown.
Qianzhousaurus sinensis is believed to have lived in the same region as their deep-snouted peers, but were most likely not in competition with them. The shorter-snouted tyrannosaurs would have been larger and hunted different target prey.
The team hopes more specimens will be added to the long-snout tyrannosaur collection in the future.
"The new discovery is very important. Along with Alioramus from Mongolia, it shows that the long-snouted tyrannosaurids were widely distributed in Asia. Although we are only starting to learn about them, the long-snouted tyrannosaurs were apparently one of the main groups of predatory dinosaurs in Asia," Professor Junchang Lü, of the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, said in the news release.
