Timurlengia

''Timurlengia'' is an extinct genus of tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaur found in Uzbekistan, in the Bissekty Formation in the Kyzylkum Desert, hailing from the Turonian age of the early Late Cretaceous. The type species is ''Timurlengia euotica''.

Discovery

From 1944 onwards, tyrannosauroid fossil material consisting of single bones has been described from the Bissekty Formation by Soviet or Russian researchers. In 2004 an international team discovered a braincase. The braincase was housed at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where tyrannosaur expert Steve Brusatte identified it as a distinctive new species in 2014.

In 2016, Stephen Louis Brusatte, Alexander Averianov, Hans-Dieter Sues, Amy Muir, and Ian B. Butler named and described the type species ''Timurlengia euotica''. The genus is named after Timurleng, founder of the Timurid Empire in Central Asia. The specific name ''euotica'' is Greek for “well-eared”, because detailed CAT-scans showed that ''Timurlengia'' had a well-developed inner ear for hearing low-frequency sounds.

The species was based on the holotype, specimen ZIN PH 1146/16, consisting of the braincase. Other bones, not belonging to a single individual, and described in 2012, were referred to the species. These included the specimens ZIN PH 854/16: the right half of a braincase; ZIN PH 676/16: a right maxilla; ZIN PH 2330/16: a left frontal bone; ZIN PH 2296/16: a left quadrate; ZIN PH 15/16: a piece of a right dentary; ZIN PH 1239/16: a right articular with angular; ZIN PH 671/16: an anterior cervical vertebra; USNM 538131: a posterior cervical vertebra; USNM 538132: the neural arch of anterior dorsal vertebra; CCMGE 432/12457: a mid-dorsal vertebra; ZIN PH 951/16: an anterior tail vertebra; ZIN PH 120/16: a mid-caudal vertebra; ZIN PH 507/16: a posterior caudal vertebra; ZINPH 619/16: a hand claw; and USNM 538167: a toe claw. These fossils were referred to a single tyrannosauroid taxon because no other tyrannosauroid is known from the Bissekty Formation. The specimen ZIN PH 2330/16, however, has been suggested to be a dromaeosaurid instead in the supplementary material by Voris et al. (2025).

Description

The holotype specimen belonging to a subadult was about long and weighed . ZIN PH 1239/16 represents a larger, adult individual.

In 2016, several distinguishing traits were established, all pertaining to the holotype braincase. The supraoccipital bone has a diamond-shaped process pointing to below and not reaching the upper rim of the foramen magnum. The basioccipital has very short basal tubers, only attaining a third of the height of the occipital condyle. The oval window and the ear vestibule form a funnel-shaped recess and has a wide exit on the side wall of the braincase. The inner ear is large with prominent semicircular canals.

Phylogeny

''Timurlengia'' was placed in the Tyrannosauroidea, in a basal position, as a possible sister species of '' Xiongguanlong''. Together they may represent a clade of long-snouted forms that might have been the sister group of the Tyrannosauridae.

The genus is important in showing how earlier small tyrannosauroids evolved into the large Tyrannosauridae like ''Tyrannosaurus'', typical of the Late Cretaceous period of Asia and North America. The species is not believed to be a direct ancestor of ''Tyrannosaurus''. ''Timurlengia'' lived ninety million years ago, in the middle-late Turonian age of the early Late Cretaceous, right before the rise of the advanced tyrannosaurids. There had been a twenty million year "tyrannosaur gap" in the fossil records of the tyrannosauroid timeline, between the small "marginal hunters" and the "apex predators" of the tyrannosaurid group. The discovery of ''Timurlengia'' has filled that gap. ''Timurlengia'' reveals that tyrannosaurs had yet to achieve huge size at this time but had already evolved key brain and sensory features of the gigantic latest Cretaceous species. These features were originally thought to be unique to big tyrannosaurs, as they evolved into large animals. Tyrannosaurs apparently developed huge size rapidly during the late Cretaceous, and their success in the top predator role may have been enabled by their brain and keen senses which first evolved at a smaller body size. ''Timurlengias small size indicates that tyrannosaurs only evolved their large size in the last twenty million years of their evolution. It is unknown what precisely triggered the size increase.

The braincase of ''Timurlengia'' shows that tyrannosaurs likely developed their advanced head first, as hypothesised by Hans-Dieter Sues, one of the fossil's describers. ''Timurlengia’s'' skull, though much smaller than that of ''Tyrannosaurus'', shows a sophisticated brain that would have led to keen eyesight, smell and hearing. At the time tyrannosaurs were developing acute senses and cognitive abilities, other large meat-eating dinosaurs such as the Carnosauria were disappearing from the environment or dying out, creating a vacant niche, allowing tyrannosaurs to become apex predators. The head of ''Timurlengia'' is far less pneumatised than that of the larger tyrannosaurids; the increased airspaces with the later forms might have been an adaptation to lighten the skull or to increase hearing ability.

Classification

Below is the phylogenetic analysis on the placement of ''Timurlengia''.

Paleobiology

''Timurlengia'' was likely a pursuit hunter with blade-like teeth for slicing through meat, based on its skeletal remains. The robustness of the semicircular inner ear canals might be related to a greater agility. ''Timurlengia'' has a long cochlear duct, with the same height as the labyrinth, an adaptation to hearing low-frequency sounds. This might be an indication that the animal used low calls to communicate within the species.

See also

* Timeline of tyrannosaur research
* 2016 in paleontology

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q23055480

Tyrannosauroidea
Dinosaur genera
Turonian dinosaurs
Bissekty Formation
Taxa named by Stephen L. Brusatte
Taxa named by Hans-Dieter Sues
Fossil taxa described in 2016
Dinosaurs of Uzbekistan