Scientists have detailed a new species of dinosaur, a feathered creature with a giant beak that stood at roughly 10 feet tall and was something like a giant chicken.
"We jokingly call this thing the 'chicken from hell,' and I think that's pretty appropriate," said researcher Matt Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Penn., as reported by the AFP.
The long-tailed dinosaur, which had a head with a "hen-like crest" and long, ostrich-esque legs, is the biggest Oviraptorosaur ever discovered, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE.
The dinosaur, which likely weighed around 600 pounds, is believed to have eaten other dinosaurs' eggs, raiding their nests, as well as other smaller creatures.
Speaking to CNN, lead study author Lamanna described the dinosaur as an intersection between an ostrich and a velociraptor.
"You might think this was a really, really weird-looking bird," Lamanna told CNN. "... But, in fact, this was a very bird-like dinosaur ... with a really long bony tail, very large hands and really sharp claws."
The researchers have named the newly discovered species Anzu wyliei, the moniker partially inspired by the bird-demon Anzu of Mesopotamian mythology. The Anzu wyliei is the largest of its egg-stealing kind yet discovered as well as the most complete specimen.
The study is based on three excavations in North and South Dakota from a rock formation called Hell Creek. The specimens were discovered more than a decade ago along with a plethora of other fossils that included T. rex and Triceratops bones, according to the AFP.
Four scientists worked together to compile around 80 percent of the skeleton, a high percentage in the paleontology world. They believe the dinosaur lived around 66 million years ago in warm, humid conditions in what is now North and South Dakota.
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