Bizarre Cousin of T. Rex Was a Vegetarian

A relative of Tyrannosaurus rexdidn't share the infamous carnivore's appetite for meat, a new study finds. Instead, the newly discovered 9.8-foot-long (3 meters) dinosaur munched on plants about 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic period.

The new species is a member of the theropod group, which consists of mostly carnivorous dinosaurs and includes not onlyT. rex but also the fearsomeVelociraptor. The newfound "bizarre herbivorous" creature looked like a mixture of a plant-grazing, long-necked sauropodomorph; an herbivorous beaked ornithischian; and a meat-eating theropod, the study researchers said.

"When I saw all the fragmented bones laying on the table, I thought all of them belonged to different dinosaur lineages," said the study's lead researcher, Fernando Novas, a researcher at the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "That dinosaur is spectacular and bizarre because it combines different features belonging to these three main groups of dinosaurs."

Photos: 7-Year-Old Boy Discovers T. Rex Cousin

The newfound dinosaur species Chilesaurus diegosuarezi may be a cousin of the notorious Tyrannosaurus rex, but it didn't eat meat, a new study shows. Instead, C. diegosuarezi grazed on plants, according to a study of its leaf-shaped teeth. Chilesaurus has other characteristics of an herbivorous dinosaur, and shows paleontologists the ways dinosaur skeletons changed when the animals started eating plants, researchers say. [Read the full story on Chilesaurus diegosuarezi]

Chilean dino

 

 

This dinosaur may be a theropod, a type of dinosaur that ate primarily meat, but C. diegosuarezi ate plants, researchers found. Its long neck may have helped it forage for vegetation, and its large feet likely helped support its weight. (Image credit: Gabriel Lío)

Herbivorous theropod

 

 

Chilesaurus diegosuarezi walked on its hind legs as other theropods did. It also had robust forelimbs that looked like those of other Jurassic theropods, such as the Allosaurus, the researchers said. However, its two fingers are blunt, unlike the sharp ones of its theropod cousinVelociraptor.(Image credit: Gabriel Lío)

Looking around

 

 

A 7-year-old boy discovered a few fossilized vertebrae of C. diegosuareziin southern Chile in 2010 during a geology expedition with his parents. The Chilean scientists reached out to paleontologists in Argentina, and together, they found dozens of C. diegosuarezibones, including four complete specimens.

The newfound species is so odd that, if it weren't for the complete specimens, "Chilesaurus would be too bizarre to take seriously," said Thomas Carr, an associate professor of biology at Carthage College in Wisconsin and a vertebrate paleontologist who was not involved in the study. (Image credit: Gabriel Lío)

X-ray view

 

 

Chilesaurus diegosuarezihas characteristics of three different dinosaur groups. Its pubic bone points backward like that of an ornithischian dinosaur, perhaps because it provided the gut more surface area with which to digest plant matter, the researchers said. In most carnivorous dinosaurs, the pubic bone points downward or slightly forward, Carr said. (Image credit: Gabriel Lío)

Treasure map

 

 

Researchers excavated the Chilesaurus diegosuarezi remains in the Aysén (also spelled Aisén) region of Southern Chile. (Image credit: Fernando Novas)

Dino chompers

 

 

Dental fossils show that Chilesaurus diegosuarezi did not have sharp, bladed teeth as its relative T. rex did. Here is a side view of its right jaw and teeth. (Photo credit: Fernando Novas)

Dinosaur discoverer

 

 

Geologist Manuel Suárez (right) and his son Diego (left), who foundChilesaurus when he was just 7 years old. (Photo credit: Fernando Novas)

Rocky excavation

 

 

An excavation of the dinosaur skeleton beds in the Toqui Formation in the southern Andes in Chile. (Photo credit: Fernando Novas)

Hard work

 

 

A team digs up the skeleton beds in southern Chile. In addition to theChilesaurus remains, researchers found crocodyliforms (crocodile ancestors) and fragmentary remains of sauropod dinosaurs (diplodocids and titanosaurians), the researchers said. 

Dino dig

 

 

At first glance, C. diegosuarezi looks like a perplexing mix of different dinosaurs. But "I think what we're really seeing are the expression of limited options that dinosaurs have when they're herbivores," Carr said. "When you take a meat-eating body and you evolve it into an herbivore, there's only so many options that are available."