The fossil of a 66-million-year old bird-like dinosaur, dubbed as a "chicken from hell", was discovered by researchers from the University of Utah and Carnegie and Smithsonian museums.
The 500-pound dinosaur reportedly roamed North and South Dakota alongside the Tyrannosaurus rex and is called "Anzu Wyliei." It derives its name from a bird-like demon called Anzu in Mesopotamian mythology and Wyliei, after the dinosaur-loving grandson of a Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh trustee.
Three incomplete skeletons were uncovered from the uppermost level of the Hell Creek rock formation in North and South Dakota, according to a press release. The creature had sharp claws and arms up to about 4 inches long. It measured 11.5 ft long, almost 5ft tall at the hip. It had a toothless beak and a crest on its skull like a rooster's comb. It apparently also had feathers over much of its body.
"We jokingly call this thing the 'chicken from hell,' and I think that's pretty appropriate," Matt Lamanna, lead author of the study from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, said in the news release. "It was a giant raptor, but with a chicken-like head and presumably feathers. The animal stood about 10 feet tall, so it would be scary as well as absurd to encounter."
Emma Schachner, a co-author of the study said that Anzu is one of the youngest oviraptorosaurs known, as it lived around the time of the asteroid strike on Earth 65 million years ago, which was blamed for the extinction of dinosaurs. It is also the largest oviraptorosaur found in North America.
Researchers of the study believe that the dinosaur was an omnivore, eating vegetation, small animals and perhaps eggs while living on a wet floodplain, according to a Sci-news report. Evidence of a broken and healed rib and a toe trauma suggest that the animal was aggressive in nature and got into major fights.
When it came to naming the creature, researchers first considered a spin-off of "chicken from hell" but since no phrase was as catchy in Latin or Greek, they had to consider alternatives.
"All the names we came up with were just ridiculously unpronounceable," Lamanna said, according to Fox News. "I thought that if I couldn't come up with a name that literally meant 'chicken from hell,' I could at least name it 'feathered demon.' "
Funding for this study was provided by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the American Philosophical Society Franklin Research Grant and the National Museum of Natural History Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellowship. The study was published online in PLOS One.
