Newly discovered dinosaur had 'T. rex arms' that evolved independently

Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - 15:48 in Paleontology & Archaeology

Scientists still aren't sure why T. rex had those absurdly small forelimbs, but apparently the look was all the rage in the Late Cretaceous. A newly-discovered dinosaur from Patagonia has similar short, two-fingered claws, even though it's not closely related to the tyrannosaurs. Like Tyrannosaurus rex, the new Gualicho shinyae is a theropod, one of the two-legged, bird-like dinosaurs, but it's on a different branch of the family tree, meaning that the unusual limbs evolved independently rather than arising from a common short-armed ancestor.

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