Dilong (dinosaur)
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Extinct (fossil)
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| Dilong paradoxus Xu et. al., 2004 |
Dilong paradoxus ('paradoxical emperor dragon') is a small, feathered tyrannosaurid dinosaur species from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation in the Liaoning province of China. It lived about 130 million years ago. The name is derived from the Mandarin Chinese 帝 dì meaning 'emperor' and 龙 lóng meaning 'dragon', used to name dinosaurs in the same way as -saur(us) in the West, plus paradoxus or paradoxum, a Latinisation of the Ancient Greek παράδοξον meaning 'against received wisdom'.
It is one of the earliest and most primitive known tyrannosaurids and had a covering of feathers. Its name refers to the association of Tyrannosaurus rex with feathers: a mythological Chinese Dragon (Dilong) but with a paradoxical edge: its small size and its feathers.
The feathers were seen in a fossilized skin impression of the jaw and tail. They are not developed as modern feathers, lacking a central shaft and used for warmth rather than flight. Adult tyrannosaurs, found in Alberta and Mongolia have skin impressions which appear to show the pebbly scales typical of other dinosaurs. Possibly the juveniles were feathered but shed them as the animal became larger.
Dilong was about 1.6 m in length and is known from four moderately complete skeletons.
[edit] References
- Xu, X., Norell, M. A., Kuang, X., Wang, X., Zhao, Q., Jia, C. (2004). "Basal tyrannosauroids from China and evidence for protofeathers in tyrannosauroids". Nature 431: 680-684.
