The Crowned Dragon

Exhibiting a flashy cranial crest, a new Jurassic dinosaur from the Junggar Basin of China provides researchers a unique view into the origin of Tyrannosauridea, the family that contains the fameous tyrant king itself, Tyrannosaurus rex. Instead of a massive 6 foot skull, the realively small new dinosaur (Guanlong) poccesses a complex ornamented "crown" formed by the fusion of the paired nasal bones, and extends posteriorly to cover most of the skull roof. This cranial crest houses a large pneumatic fenestra that served an unknown purpose. However, since the skull lacks osteologic correlates to thermoregulatory functions, the cranial crest and fenestra likely served a role in species recognition or sexual display. The new dinosaur is reminiscent of the closely related North American dinosaur Ornitholestes. However, Guanlong exhibits a number of characters that place it near the base of the Tyrannosauridea.


Xu, Xing, Clark, J.M., Forster, C.A., Norell, M.A., Erckson, G.M., Eberth, D.A., Jia, Chengkai, and Zhao, Qi. 2006. A basal tyrannosauroid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of China Nature 439, 715-718 (9 February 2006) doi:10.1038/nature04511