Yutyrannus was a large, meat-eating dinosaur from northern China. It was an early member of the tyrannosaur group.

Unlike later tyrannosaurs, which had short arms with two-fingered hands, Yutyrannus had three fingers on each hand and longer arms.

Yutyrannus had a shallow crest along the top of its head and two short horns near its eyes.

Fearsome and feathered

Many fossilised feather impressions were discovered along with this dinosaur's bones. Yutyrannus is the biggest dinosaur that we're certain had feathers.

We don't know if Yutyrannus was completely covered in feathers. Experts have found multiple feather impressions from around the dinosaur's body - so it seems likely.

Many experts say that Yutyrannus' feathers mean that later related dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus rex, probably had feathers too. But nobody knows for sure.

Researchers have found some scaly skin impressions for T. rex, but it may have had some feathers too, at least when young.

What does Yutyrannus mean?

The name Yutyrannus comes from the Mandarin Chinese word 'yu' for feathers and the Latin word 'tyrannus', meaning tyrant or king.

The species name huali comes from the Mandarin for beautiful - the dinosaur's plumage impressed the researchers who named it.

How big was Yutyrannus?

Three Yutyrannus skeletons have been discovered. The two smaller specimens are almost complete.

This means scientists can estimate the fully grown length of Yutyrannus with confidence. We think it was around 7.5 metres long.

While quite large, this is nowhere close to Tyrannosaurus, which could grow to more than 12 metres in length.

Where did Yutyrannus live?

Scientists couldn't collect the Yutyrannus specimens themselves. They got them from a fossil dealer who said they were from a quarry in Liaoning, China.

As researchers don't know exactly where the remains were found, nobody is certain what kind of environment the dinosaur lived in or what other dinosaurs were there too.

The most likely theory is that Yutyrannus lived in an area with a lot of trees, lakes, regular volcanic activity and forest fires. Despite the volcanoes, the area was probably quite cool - around 10 degrees Celsius. This might explain the need for a feather coat!

Since the three Yutyrannus specimens were found together, some experts think the dinosaur might have been a pack hunter that teamed up to take down bigger dinosaurs such as long-necked sauropods.