Biologist discovers new meat-eating dinosaur in China

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A George Washington University biologist has discovered a new meat-eating dinosaur in northwestern China. James Clark, the Ronald B. Weintraub Professor of Biology, located the fossil remains in an out-of-the-way region of Xinjiang in China in 2006. The new dinosaur specimen is said to be just over three feet long and likely weighed approximately three pounds. According to Clark, the only part of the new meat-eating dinosaur that was visible on the surface was a small part of the leg. The biologists were pleased to also unearth a skull hidden in the rock. The new dinosaur specimen is called Aorun zhaoi, which is a reference to the Dragon King in the Chinese tale Journey to the West. Though the fossil is small, the biologists point out that this particular dinosaur died when it was young. Jonah Choiniere, Clark’s former doctoral student, said that microscopic details of the dinosaur’s bones revealed that it was approximately a year old when it passed away. Choiniere is now a senior researcher at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. According to the biologists, the new meat-eating dinosaur lived more than 161 million years ago during the first part of the Late Jurassic Period. Aorun likely hunted lizards and tiny relatives of today’s mammals and crocodilians.