Dilong paradoxus

Dilong; Temporal range: Lower Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Theropoda
Family:	Tyrannosauridae
Genus:	Dilong;
Species
	Dilong paradoxus Type species

Dilong ('emperor dragon') is a genus of small carnivorous dinosaur. The only known species is Dilong paradoxus. It is from Lower Cretaceous near Lujiatun, Beipiao, in the western Liaoning province of China It lived about 130 million years ago.

The animal had a covering of simple feathers or protofeathers. The feathers were seen in fossilized skin impressions from near the jaw and tail. They are not identical to modern bird feathers: they lack a central shaft. Their likely function was to retain body warmth. They could not have been used for flight. Adult tyrannosaurs found in Alberta and Mongolia have skin impressions which appear to show the pebbly scales typical of other dinosaurs.^[1]

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Xu X. et al 2004. Basal tyrannosauroids from China and evidence for protofeathers in tyrannosauroids. Nature 431 (7009): 680–684. [1] Archived 2012-04-02 at the Wayback Machine

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[Xu-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Xu X. et al 2004. Basal tyrannosauroids from China and evidence for protofeathers in tyrannosauroids. Nature 431 (7009): 680–684. [1] Archived 2012-04-02 at the Wayback Machine

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