Alectrosaurus

What it was like

Alectrosaurus was a medium-sized tyrannosauroid, an early relative of Tyrannosaurus. It was about 5 meters (16 feet) long, with long legs built for running and larger arms than its giant later cousins.

Its skull is poorly known, but it probably hunted like other early tyrannosaur relatives, chasing down plant eaters smaller than itself.

Its world

It lived in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now China. The first bones came from the Iren Dabasu Formation, where it shared the land with the giant bird-like Gigantoraptor and the ostrich-like Archaeornithomimus.

How it was found

Gilmore named Alectrosaurus in 1933, from bones found by an American expedition to Asia. Some fossils from Uzbekistan have also been referred to it, but that link is uncertain.