This 'shark-toothed' dinosaur gave tough competition to T-Rex

To some of us it's a relief that mankind was not there to witness reign of dinosaurs. For some it feels like a missed opportunity. The scary reptiles would have been a treat to watch in flesh. Of course the excitement would have lasted only till we were not on their dinner plate! The pre-historic dino-world was full of apex predators like T-Rex. What could rival THE T-Rex right?

But a new study has revealed that there indeed was a dinosaur who took on the mighty T-Rex as far as competition in a habitat was concerned.

A new study has shed light on the dinosaur that lived 90 million years ago. It was a meat-eating dinosaur with shark-like serrated teeth. The beast prowled what is now Uzbekistan.

Interesting thing is that this dinosaur was twice the length and five times the weight of T-Rex! So in a straight fight, T-Rex surely must have had its hands full. The dinosaur has been named Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis after Ulugh Beg, a 15 century mathematician, astronomer and sultan from Uzbekistan.

Jawbone of this dinosaur was found in Uzbekistan's Kyzylkum Desert in the 1980s. Scientists rediscovered it in 2019 in a museum collection.

U Uzbekistanesis belongs to a category of dinosaurs called Carcharodontosaurs. These dinosaurs were slender than the T-Rex but heavier than them. U Uzbekistanesis is the first Carcharodontosaur in Central Asia. 

It was the dominant predator in its habitat and gobbled up Saurapods, horned dinosaurs and other Ostrich-like dinosaurs.

The reign of U Uzbekistanesis came to an end 80 to 90 million years ago. And T-Rex took over as the dominant predator in Asia.