A newly discovered dinosaur dubbed "the chicken from hell" was as fearsome as it was ridiculous, scientists say.
When the 3.5m-long giant raptor lived 66 million years ago, it would have had a "chicken-like head" and beak, "cassowary-like crest", a maximum weight of 300kg and was likely covered in feathers.
"The animal stood about 10 feet [3m] tall, so it would be scary as well as absurd to encounter," said University of Utah biology postdoctoral fellow Emma Schachner.
The fossil's "chicken from hell" tag originated as a joke but has now stuck.
"I think that [nickname] is pretty appropriate," said Matt Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, lead author of a new study describing the find.
The dinosaur's formal name is Anzu wyliei – "Anzu" after a bird-like demon in Mesopotamian mythology, and "wyliei" after Wylie J Tuttle, the dinosaur-loving grandson of a museum trustee.
Scientists dug up three partial skeletons of the dinosaur from the Hell Creek rock formation in North and South Dakota, an area known for its many tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops fossils.
Anzu wyliei is believed to have been an omnivore, feeding on the vegetation, small animals and eggs found on the wet floodplain where it lived.
It's the largest oviraptorosaur ever found in North America.
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