Ulughbegsaurus

Ulughbegsaurus was a mid-sized carcharodontosaurian theropod that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Uzbekistan. Described from a partial left maxilla preserved in museum collections, it measured an estimated seven to eight metres in length and weighed over a tonne. Ulughbegsaurus was the apex predator of the coastal plain biome preserved in the Bissekty Formation. Notably, it coexisted with Timurlengia, a small basal tyrannosauroid that was significantly smaller in size. The presence of Ulughbegsaurus demonstrates that carcharodontosaurians remained the dominant large predators across Central Asia well into the Turonian, holding back tyrannosauroids from reaching giant apex predator sizes until carcharodontosaurs eventually vanished later in the Cretaceous.

It was named in honour of the fifteenth-century Timurid astronomer and mathematician Ulugh Beg.

Where and when

Ulughbegsaurus lived in the Late Cretaceous, from 92 to 90 million years ago (Turonian age). Its remains come from Uzbekistan, in the Bissekty Formation.

The numbers

Length 7.8 m (estimates run from 7.5 to 8 m). Mass about 1.2 t. Hip height about 2.2 m. That is 4.6 human-lengths, or 0.7 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from fragmentary remains; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

Compare Ulughbegsaurus with a bus Place on the timeline