Dinosaurs » A-Z Dinosaurs List » Dilong Paradoxus Dinosaur

Dilong paradoxus is a small, feathered tyrannosaurid dinosaur species from the inferior Cretaceous Yixian configuration in the Liaoning province of China, and is around 130 million years old. It was foud by the paleontologist Thomas R.Holtz.

It is one of the first and most primitive known tyrannosaurids, and had a casing of feathers. Its name refers to the connection of Tyrannosaurus rex with feathers: a mythological Chinese Dragon (Dilong), but with a paradoxical edge: its small size and its feathers.

Dilong paradoxus was found in American Museum of Natural History. The feathers were seen in a fossilized skin feeling of the jaw and tail. They are not urbanized as modern feathers, lacking a central shaft and used for warmth rather than flight. Adult tyrannosaurs, establish in Alberta and Mongolia have skin impressions which come into view to show the pebbly scales typical of other dinosaurs. Possibly the juveniles were feathered but shed them as the animal became larger.

Dilong was concerning 6.2 meters in length and is known from four moderately complete skeletons.