迷你霸王龙模型重现
The tiny dino had been excavated in Mongolia illegally and sold to a private collector. He contacted Sereno to evaluate the preserved tyrannosaurid. Sereno agreed to do so if the dinosaur was donated to science, and eventually returned to China.
The dinosaur is about nine feet long and had an estimated weight of only 150 pounds. But it’s all there—the tiny arms, the huge head, the large teeth and muscular jaw. A hundred-twenty-five million years later, that animal’s descendants had ballooned into an almost exact replica more than 90 times larger. Sereno and his colleagues say the body plan must have been a successful structure for hunting prey—and ultimately thrilling dinosaur lovers everywhere.
—Cynthia Graber
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