Tianyulong Pronunciation

Fun Facts

• ✓Tianyulong had bristle-like filaments up to 6 centimeters long along its spine, which is longer relative to body size than the proto-feathers seen on many small theropod dinosaurs.
• ✓This tiny dinosaur belonged to Heterodontosauridae, a group so ancient and weird that scientists still debate whether they were plant-eaters, omnivores, or even part-time insect hunters.
• ✓Tianyulong was named and described in 2009 by Fenglu Han and colleagues, and its discovery sent shockwaves through paleontology because it showed body filaments on the ornithischian branch of the dinosaur family tree.
• ✓The single known specimen of Tianyulong preserves not just bones but also the soft tissue filaments as carbon impressions in the rock, meaning scientists can measure their exact length and placement.
• ✓Because both ornithischians like Tianyulong and theropods like Sinosauropteryx had proto-feathers, many scientists now think the common ancestor of all dinosaurs may have been fuzzy, meaning even T. rex ancestors could have been covered in bristles.