What is Alpkarakush kyrgyzicus?

About Alpkarakush kyrgyzicus:

• It is a new species of large theropod dinosaur discovered in the Middle Jurassic Balabansai formation in the northern part of the Fergana Depression, Kyrgyzstan.
• It roamed our planet during the Callovian age oftheJurassic period between 165 and 161 million years ago.
• The ancient predator was 7 to 8 m in body length, and had an extremely protruding ‘eyebrow’ on the so-called postorbital bone, a skull bone behind the eye opening, which indicates the presence of a horn at this point.
• It belongs to Metriacanthosauridae, a group of medium-to large-sized allosauroid theropod dinosaurs that are characterized by high arched skulls, plate-like elongate neural spines, and slender hindlimbs.
  • Theropod dinosaurs are one of the most important large groups of dinosaurs, including well-known predators such as Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus, as well as modern birds.

Alpkarakush kyrgyzicus is also the first large Jurassic predatory dinosaur ever unearthed between central Europe and East Asia.

Q1: What is the Fergana Depression?

The Fergana depression is an intra- orogenic intermountain depression. It is bounded by the mountain uplifts of Alai and Turkestan systems in the south, by the Fergana mountain in the northeast, and by the Chatkal-Kurama mountain in the north and northwest.

Source: New dinosaur species with bizarre brow bone lived in Kyrgyzstan 165 million years ago