Qianzhousaurus was discovered at a construction site in Ganzhou, China, and was formally described in 2014. It was remarkably well preserved and featured a nearly complete skull.
Other slender snouted tyrannosaurs had been discovered in the Alioramus genus, but it was never fully known whether these represented younger versions of larger species or whether they were genuinely a different and new type of tyrannosaur.
With the discovery of Qianzhousaurus, with a completely fused skull that indicates it was an adult, it is now known that these “Pinocchio Rexes” were a legitimate offshoot from the heavier, bulkier, larger tyrannosaurs like T. rex and Tarbosaurus, and probably occupied a different ecological role.
Qianzhousaurus lived in an environment that likely had plenty of trees and water to support a wide variety of dinosaurs and other animals. It lived alongside oviraptorid dinosaurs and sauropods, and may have lived alongside larger tyrannosaurs like Tarbosaurus.
