Timurlengia
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Timurlengia Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 90 Ma |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sauropsida |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Infraorder: | Coelurosauria |
| Superfamily: | Tyrannosauroidea |
| Genus: |
Timurlengia Brusatte et al., 2016 |
| Binomial name | |
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Timurlengia euotica Brusatte et al., 2016 |
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Timurlengia is an extinct genus of tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaur found in Uzbekistan, in the Bissekty Formation in the Kyzylkum Desert, hailing from the Turonian age of the early Late Cretaceous. The type species is Timurlengia euotica.
From 1944 onwards, tyrannosauroid fossil material consisting of single bones has been described from the Bissekty Formation by Soviet or Russian researchers. In 2004 a team discovered a braincase, which would have anchored the dinosaur’s neck muscles and protected its brain and ear canals. The braincase was stored in a cardboard box in the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, until tyrannosaur expert Steve Brusatte identified it as a distinctive new species in 2014.
In 2016, Stephen Louis Brusatte, Alexander Averianov, Hans-Dieter Sues, Amy Muir, and Ian B. Butler named and described the type species Timurlengia euotica. The genus is named after Timurleng, founder of the Timurid Empire in Central Asia. The specific name euotica is Greek for “well-eared”, because detailed CAT-scans showed that Timurlengia had long inner ear canals, for hearing low-frequency sounds.
The species was based on the holotype, specimen ZIN PH 1146/16, consisting of the braincase. Other bones, not belonging to a single individual, and described in 2012, were referred to the species. These included the specimens ZIN PH 854/16: the right half of a braincase; ZIN PH 676/16: a right maxilla; ZIN PH 2330/16: a left frontal bone; ZIN PH 2296/16: a left quadrate; ZIN PH 15/16: a piece of a right dentary; ZIN PH 1239/16: a right articular with angular; ZIN PH 671/16: a front neck vertebra; USNM 538131: a rear neck vertebra; USNM 538132: the neural arch of front back vertebra; CCMGE 432/12457: a middle back vertebra; ZIN PH 951/16: a front tail vertebra; ZIN PH 120/16: a middle tail vertebra; ZIN PH 120/16: a rear tail vertebra; ZINPH 619/16; and USNM 538167: a toe claw. These fossils were referred under the assumption that but a single tyrannosauroid taxon is present in the Bissekty Formation.
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