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Giant bird-like dino fossil found in China

BEIJING, June 13 (UPI) -- Chinese scientists have found the fossil of a gigantic bird-like dinosaur thought to have lived about 70 million years ago in Inner Mongolia.

Xing Xu and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences said the animal probably weighed about 3,000 pounds. That contradicts the theory that posits carnivorous dinosaurs became smaller as they became more bird-like. The find, therefore, has been classified as a new species and genus.

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Although a phylogenetic analysis of the skeleton placed it within the family that includes the beaked, bird-like Oviraptor, its size is about 35-times heavier than similar feathered dinosaurs, which rarely exceeded a body mass of about 90 pounds.

The researchers said the new dinosaur would have been about 26 feet long and about twice the height of a man. Since the fossil showed signs of arrested growth, it was most likely still a young adult when it died, so the full-sized dinosaur might have been even larger.

The discovery is discussed in the journal Nature.

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