June 13, 2007

A Surprising Dinosaur Discovery

The gigantic remains of a new, birdlike dinosaur species are found in China

By Andrea Delbanco

Much to their surprise, scientists working in China dug up an astonishing find: two fossilized leg bones, each a little over three feet long. According to a report released Wednesday, the bones belonged to a birdlike dinosaur called Gigantoraptor elrianensis. The dinosaur was as tall as the meat-eating Tyrannosaurus rex.

NG HAN GUAN—AP PHOTO A small model of the Gigantoraptor and a replica of its skull were unveiled today in China.

The flightless Gigantoraptor had a beak, slim legs and was most likely feathered. It had a small head, a long neck and sharp claws. It is not yet known if the Gigantoraptor was a carnivore or an herbivore.

Big Old Bird Bones

The bones were uncovered in the Erlain Basin, located in China's Inner Mongolia region. The fossilized find gave scientists important clues about the big creature the bones came from. They indicate that the dinosaur was about 26 feet long and 16 feet tall. It likely weighed some 3,000 pounds. The bones are believed to have belonged to a young adult dinosaur, not necessarily a fully grown dinosaur.

Xu Xing, a paleontologist in Beijing, is a member of the team that discovered the Gigantoraptor in 2005. According to Xu, the Gigantoraptor was 35 times larger than its closest relative, the Caudiperyx, a small, feathered dinosaur species. The Caudiperyx and the Gigantoraptor belong to a group of dinosaurs called Oviraptors. Oviraptors are usually, at most, the size of humans. Paleontologists have recently found Oviraptors that are about the size of turkeys, but they have never found anything even close to the Gigantoraptor’s size. "It was an unexpected finding," says Xu.

According to the leading theories, dinosaurs became smaller as they evolved into birds while bigger dinosaurs had fewer birdlike characteristics. But the Gigantoraptor discovery could throw those views into question. "This is like having a mouse that is the size of a horse or cow," says Xu. "It is very important information for us in our efforts to trace the evolution process of dinosaurs to birds. It's more complicated than we imagined."

Sometimes It’s Not Easy Being Giant

Some scientists believe that the Gigantoraptor represents a natural step in the evolutionary process of Oviraptors. "Almost every group that has evolved tended to evolve to giant forms," says Philip Curie, a paleontologist at the University of Alberta, in Canada.

There are some evolutionary advantages to being big. Larger animals have an easier time getting food, finding mates and fighting off predators. But there are disadvantages, too. Bigger animals need more food and space to live in. They produce fewer offspring than smaller animals.

The Gigantoraptor probably suffered from some of these obstacles. Just a few million years after the species roamed the Earth, it and every other dinosaur went extinct. Now, thanks to the new discovery, scientists can get to know the Gigantoraptor.

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