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Zhuchengtyrannus magnus is a newly named dinosaur species, which probably measured about 11 metres in length, stood about 4 metres tall and weighed close to 6 tonnes. The name means the 'Tyrant from Zhucheng' because the bones were sound in the city of Zhucheng, in the Shandong Province of eastern China. The species is classed as a tyrannosaurine therapod based on a maxilla and dentary. It is classified as a tyrannosaurine tyrannosaurid which lived during the late Cretaceous period and is thus a cousin of the ever popular Tyrannosaurus Rex. Many agree that this makes the discovery really freaking cool.

Classification
In 1973, Chengzhi assigned four theropod teeth from a quarry close to the city of Zhucheng to the North American tyrannosaurid Tyrannosaurus rex, and subsequently (Hu et al., 2001) used these teeth and a single metatarsal as a basis for erecting the ostensible new Tyrannosaurus species T.zhuchengensis. For a time, Hu's findings represented the only therapod findings from the area until recent excavations uncovered several new tyrannosaurid cranial and postcranial bones from the Zangjiazhuang site. The 'associated maxilla and dentary'found in Zhuchengtyrannus magnus were used to classify the species as 'a new giant tyrannosaurid from the Upper Cretaceous of the Zhucheng area'. However, there are number of traits distinguishing it from other Tyrannosaurids.

The species is 'distinguished from other tyrannosaurine taxa by the following features of the maxilla: a horizontal shelf on the lateral surface of the base of the ascending process, and a rounded notch in the anterior margin of the maxillary fenestra'. Other distinguishing featyures include the ventral margin of the antorbital fenestra lying well above that of the ventral rim of the antorbital fossa and the anteroposterior length of themaxillary fenestra being more than half the distance between the anterior margins of the antorbital fossa and fenestra. It can also 'be distinguished from the contemporaneous Asian tyrannosaurine Tarbosaurus bataar by the absence of a subcutaneous flange on the posterodorsal part of the jugal ramus of the maxilla, and the absence of a ventrally convex palatal shelf that covers the bulges of the roots of the posterior teeth in medial view'.

What does its discovery mean?
According to David Hone ' Zhuchengtyrannus is really rather big'. The species was found to be a little smaller than Tyrannosaurus and similar in size to Tarbosaurus. The only other dinosaur types it was not found to be bigger than include Spinosaurus, Mapusaurus and Giganotosaurus. The anatomical differences would apparently make no real difference to the appearance of the animal and Hone has said it is 'reasonable to infer that this animal was occupying a similar niche to the other giant tyrannosaurines',i.e. It was certainly a predator and a scavenger.

So far, there is no direct evidence that Tarbosaurus and Zhuchengtyrannus would have occupied overlapping niches. Nevertheless, their fossils are being dated to very similar times and these remains are no more than a few hundred kilometers apart. Based on this evidence, Hone believes It is 'really quite likely that they met and of course ZT is itself accompanied by another large tyrannosaur from the same quarry so there could have been quite a party going down'. The implication of this is that Tyrannosaurus Rex was the only theropod which was not challenged by another theropod of similar size in the same region.

Creationist View
As this is a relatively new discovery, the YEC community has not established just what humans would have used this dinosaur for. We can safely assume that it will have been tamed by humans and that those large teeth weren't for engaging in any unpleasant carnivorous activities. Those large teeth were probably for opening coconuts. It is quite impressive though that this discovery has already caught the attention of some creationists on Yahoo! news. We shouldn't have to wait long for the scriptural evidence now.