Yutyrannus hints that T. rex, too, may have been downy soft.
A newly discovered giant feathered dinosaur—a distant cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex—sported a fine down coat, making it the largest feathered animal known to have lived, scientists say.
Paleontologists already knew that some members of the group of dinosaurs to which T. rex belonged, called theropods, were feathered. But most of the known feathered dinos were relatively small.
The new dinosaur species, has been named Yutyrannus huali—a Latin-Mandarin mash-up that means "beautiful feathered tyrant."
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