Anzu wyliei: Scientists announce new dinosaur discovery

By Jane O'BrienBBC News, Washington

The BBC's Jane O'Brien speaks to Smithsonian dinosaur expert Hans Sues about the discovery of the "chicken from hell"

US scientists have announced the discovery of a new species of dinosaur. Its fossils offer further clues to how the dinosaurs became extinct 66 million years ago.

Anzu wyliei is a strange, bird-like creature that has a bony crest on top of a beaky head and a long tail like a lizard.

The animal was identified from the partial remains of three skeletons collected in North and South Dakota.

It is reported in PLoS ONE journal.

"We had inklings that there might be such a creature out there, but now with these bones we have 80% of the skeleton and can really look in detail at the structure of this animal and make inferences about its biology," says Hans Sues, curator of vertebrate palaeontology in the department of palaeobiology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.

"Anzu is really bizarre, even by dinosaur standards.

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