Guanlong
GWON-long
- deluxe
The name for this small tyrannosaurid dinosaur means ‘crown dragon’, named for the large, air-filled cranial crest it possessed. This predator measured about 3 meters in length, and reached maturity at around 7 years old.
Discovery
Preserved remains of a pair of Guanlong skeletons, one adult and one juvenile, were first discovered in the Wucaiwan area of Junggar Basin in China, buried in mudstone. A joint Chinese-American team discovered the dinosaur in 2002, and the Guanlong was first described to the scientific community in 2006.
Palaeoecology
The Guanlong is the oldest-known of the tyrannosaurids, making it a distant ancestor of the famous Tyrannosaurus rex. The Guanlong had a decorative crest that may have been used to attract mates. They lived in what is now northwestern China about 160 million years ago, and were likely a secondary predator within its ecosystem, with a primitive carnosaur being the primary.
Information
- Era
- Late Jurassic
- Family
- Proceratosauridae
- Genus
- Guanlong
- Height
- 1.1M
- Length
- 3.0M
- Weight
- 75Kg
- Diet
- Carnivore, Live Prey
- Egg batch size
- 2 - 4
