Mini T-rex Ancestor

Xiongguanlong baimoensis is the easy-to-pronounce name (okay, just kidding) of the new fossil species, which has been identified as a potential “missing link” between T. rex and supposed smaller ancestors. Like large tyrannosaurs, the fossil has a “boxy skull, reinforced temple bones to support large jaw muscles, modified front nipping teeth and a stronger spine to support a large head.”

An adult would have stood only 5 feet.

Yet X. baimoensis lacks a long, thin snout, separating it from older tyrannosaurs. Furthermore, an adult would have stood only 5 feet (1.5 m), compared to more than 13 feet (4 m) for an adult T. rex.

The question is, what about X. baimoensis convinces researchers that it was a T. rex ancestor? What aspect of its anatomy compels scientists to conclude it is a “missing link” as opposed to simply another type of dinosaur, similar to T. rex but different in some ways, too (especially in terms of size!)?

The simple answer: evolutionists need missing links because evolution requires missing links! One of the codiscoverers of X. baimoensis, the Field Museum’s Peter Makovicky, explained, “We’ve got a 40 to 50 million year gap in which we have very little fossil record. . . . We’re filling in that part of the fossil record.” Exactly as we suspected: there is no reason creationists shouldn’t interpret X. baimoensis as just another type of dinosaur—with various similarities and differences in anatomy, size, etc., to other dinosaurs. But for evolutionists, the facts have to be made to fit the model, and in this case that means making X. baimoensis a missing link.