A team of scientists from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the University of Utah has described an unusual bird-like dinosaur previously unknown to science, resembling a cross between a modern emu and a reptile.
The new species called Anzu Wyliei was a giant raptor but with a chicken-like head and feathers.
It is believed to have lived 68 to 66 million years ago and was identified from three partial skeletons collected from the Upper Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation in North and South Dakota.
The species belongs to Oviraptorosauria, a group of dinosaurs mostly known from fossils found in Central and East Asia.
The fossils of Anzu provide, for the first time, a detailed picture of the anatomy, biology and evolutionary relationships of Oviraptorosaurs.
The study's lead author Matt Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History said "We jokingly call this thing the chicken from hell, and I think that's pretty appropriate. The beaked dinosaur's formal name is Anzu wyliei - Anzu after a bird-like demon in Mesopotamian mythology, and wyliei after a boy named Wylie, the dinosaur-loving grandson of a Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh trustee".
Three partial skeletons of the dinosaur — almost making up a full skeleton - were excavated from South Dakota - a formation known for abundant fossils of Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops.
The new dinosaur was nearly feet long, almost 5 feet tall at the hip and weighed an estimated 440 to 660 pounds.
Lamanna said "I am really excited about this discovery because Anzu is the largest oviraptorosaur found in North America. Oviraptorosaurs are a group of dinosaurs that are closely related to birds and often have strange, cassowary-like crests on their heads. The cassowary is a flightless bird in New Guinea and Australia related to emus and ostriches. Anzu is also one of the youngest oviraptorosaurs known, meaning it lived very close to the dinosaur extinction event blamed on an asteroid striking Earth 65 million years ago".
The researchers believe Anzu, with large sharp claws, was an omnivore, eating vegetation, small animals and perhaps eggs while living on a wet flood plain.
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