Guanlong is a proceratosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of China. It was named in 2006 by Xu Xing and his associates. It was a small theropod notable for being one of the earliest tyrannosauroids, as well as having a large crest.
Physiology[]
Guanlong was a small theropod with a slender body, a long tail, long arms with three fingers on each hand, a moderately long neck, a long, conical head with large jaws, and a large, oval-shaped crest atop its head. Most of its body (excluding some of its legs and all of its snout) would have been covered in short, fuzz-like feathers.
Diet[]
Guanlong was a predator, preying on lizards, small mammals, pterosaurs, small ornithischians, and smaller theropods. Its teeth had knife-like serrations from front to back, and were used to cut into the hides of large prey.
Ecology[]
So far, all we know about Guanlong is that it had a large, likely flamboyant crest atop its head, used for display; whether it was used for attracting mates or for recognition by other members of its species is unknown.
In popular culture[]
Guanlong was featured in the 2009 adventure movie Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, where a pack of the proceratosaurids harasses Manny the woolly mammoth and his friends while they try to traverse an unbalanced, rocky field; interestingly enough, the director states that Guanlong was supposed to be a substitute for the famous Velociraptor, a small dromaeosaurid often featured in films as a vicious, pack-hunting menace. It was once again featured in the 2011 documentary Dinosaur Revolution, where a hungry pair of the theropods try to eat any small mammal they could find in the Jurassic forests.