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Qianzhousaurus (meaning "Qianzhou lizard") is a genus of tyrannosaurid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period. There is currently only one species named, the type species Qianzhousaurus sinensis, which is a member of the tribe Alioramini and most closely related to Alioramus, the only other known alioramin.
In all examples, the evidence described consists of feather impressions, except those genera inferred to have had feathers based on skeletal or chemical evidence, such as the presence of quill knobs (the anchor points for wing feathers on the forelimb) or a pygostyle (the fused vertebrae at the tail tip which often supports large feathers). [1]
The Asiatyrannus holotype is about half the length of the contemporary Qianzhousaurus. However, the holotype of Asiatyrannus did not belong to a skeletally mature individual, and as such, it would have been larger when fully grown. Nevertheless, it had probably passed through the life stages of most rapid growth, and other tyrannosaurines in ...
A. altai skeletal diagram, known portions in yellow. The holotype (PIN 3141/1) of Alioramus is a partial skull associated with three metatarsals.A joint Soviet-Mongolian expedition to the Gobi Desert in the early 1970s found these remains at a locality known as Nogon-Tsav in the Mongolian province of Bayankhongor, Nemegt Formation.
A micrograph of preserved melanosomes in the two feather types associated with the Brazilian pterosaur. On the left are the elongated melanosomes found in the monofilaments, and on the right are ...
Possibly, feathers were present on other areas of the body: preserved skin impressions are very small and come primarily from the legs, pelvic region, and underside of the tail, which either lack feathers or only covered in a light down in some modern large ground-dwelling birds.
Based on the distribution of the feathers, they may have covered the whole body and served in regulating temperature, given the rather cold climate of the Yixian with an average annual temperature of 10 °C (50 °F). Alternatively, if they were restricted to the regions in which they were found, they may have served as display structures.
Although the vast majority of feather discoveries have been in coelurosaurian theropods, feather-like integument has also been discovered in at least three ornithischians, suggesting that feathers may have been present on the last common ancestor of the Ornithoscelida, a dinosaur group including both theropods and ornithischians. [3]