There is a new species of dinosaur that has a lot of small arms.
The discovery of Meraxes gigas marks the third group of large predatory dinosaurs that evolved this way.
The creature disappeared 20 million years before other small-armed predator like the T. rex. It's not clear why.
Experts told Insider that the discovery adds fuel to the debate about the function of small arms for giant predator.
Dave Hone, a paleontologist from Queen Mary University in London, was not involved in the paper.
Juan Ignacio Canale, a study author from the CONICET research institute, said it took ten years to analyze the huge skeleton that was discovered in 2012
A section of the spine that was as big as a human head was found by Canale and his colleagues while they were on a field survey.
The family of two-legged dinosaurs that lived throughout the Cretacious period, but went extinct 80 to 85 million years ago, were known as the carcharodontosaurid.
The mass extinction of the T. rex took place about 20 million years ago.
A new species of carcharodontosaurid has been named after a dragon from the "Game ofThrones" books. An adult dinosaur was about 45 years old, 36 feet long, and weighed more than four tons when it died.
Carcharodontosaurid's arms are disproportionately small for their large size because of the discovery. Two of the others are tyrannosaurs.
As the two-legged predator got bigger, their heads grew but their arms became smaller.
Hone and Canale said it's not likely that three groups of dinosaurs would evolve like this.
It's a new thing. It's twice is it? Do you think it's the third time? Hone said this is happening again and again.
Their arms may have been smaller because the predator learned to hunt with only their head.
Hone said things that are not functional tend to be reduced or lost.
There are signs that the arms may still be useful.
The bones in the arms were strong and attached to strong muscles. Over time, the arms' form was consistent.
We don't know what they were supposed to do. Maybe not for the purpose of getting food. Canale said that the little arms didn't look like they would be useful for that.
Maybe for other things.
Many hypotheses have been put forward by paleontologists about how the T. rex could use their arms.
Some people think that the arms were used to counterbalance their huge heads during sex or during attacks.
The arms may have helped the predator rise from a fall, according to others.
None of these are convincing.
I'm in favor of the idea of a mechanical function in these arms. He wanted a reason that stood up to at least 10 seconds of thought and scrutiny.
Paleontology has a lot of mysteries. He said this is one of them.
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