Yutyrannus huali

[DinoFan83]

Quote:Judging from their physical built, they look much closer to Allosaurids than to Tyrannosaurids. Or they could even be from different clade of Theropoda in my opinion.

Believe it or not, you're actually not alone with that opinion. Both Darren Naish and Scott Hartman think Yutyrannus is very similar to allosauroids, perhaps moreso than it is to tyrannosauroids. Direct comparisons with allosauroids also support this; in fact, SpinoInWonderland's reconstruction of Carcharodontosaurus' skull here reminds me of Scott Hartman's Yutyrannus skulls in some aspects more than the Yutyrannus skulls remind me of themselves.
I personally think Yutyrannus is a tyrannosauroid because all the phylogenetic analyses have recovered it as one, but convergent evolution with allosauroids is probably going on; another group of tyrannosauroids (megaraptorans) were actually thought to be allosauroids for a while, so they're very convergent. Reply