chinese tiger use

End of the tiger tale?

By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website, The Hague

Chinese tiger farms house more big cats than remain in the wild

To Valmik Thapar, it is a matter of principle, of human dignity, and distortion of the traditional relationship between mankind and nature.
"To me it is disgusting," he thunders. "It's not civil to have tiger farms; it's not part of anyone's dream."
The target of Mr Thapar's ire is the prospect of China re-opening its domestic trade in tiger products.
The trade has been banned for 14 years, and using material from wild tigers would remain prohibited.
Instead, traditional medicine ingredients such as bone would be sourced from animals kept in farms.

If there wasn't a ban on the tiger trade, I assure you there wouldn't be one single tiger left in India today Valmik Thapar, Conservationist

There are thought to be at least five tiger farms in China, housing about 5,000 animals, the majority born and bred in captivity.
Astonishingly, that is more tigers than remain in the wild.
Animal welfare and conservation groups are virtually united in their opposition.
Re-opening a domestic market would boost poaching for that market, they believe, and would also lead to an increase in international trade, which would remain illegal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
A prominent conservationist who has spent 30 years observing India's tigers, Valmik Thapar is under no illusions as to what this would mean for the remaining wild populations, based largely in India.
"If there wasn't a ban on the tiger trade, I assure you there wouldn't be one single tiger left in India today," he told a reception at this year's CITES meeting in The Hague.
But there was a wider message. Tigers are wild creatures; that is how we used to treat them and respect them, and putting them behind bars, denuding them of their instincts and their traditional behaviours, has no place in a world which claims to be civilised.
Closed doors
Tiger farms sprang up in China in the 1980s, when the market was still thriving.
Bans on national and international trade stemmed the lucrative stream of material flowing out of the farm gates. Some turned to tourism for income.
An information document which China is presenting at this CITES meeting, entitled The Current Situation of Tiger Breeding and the Facing Difficulties (sic) of the Guilin Xiongsen Tigers and Bears Mountainvillage, laments the financial difficulties which one farm is facing.

The tiger could easily earn its keep and buy its way out of extinction, if we allow it to do so Barun Mitra, Liberty Institute, Delhi

"We need 50,000,000 RMB ($6,500,000) to run the zoo, and yet, the income from tourism was just 15,000,000 RMB ($2,000,000).
"Without a fresh financial support, the 1,000 tigers would be starving. Then, it would become meaningless to talk about protections of these animals."
The farm owners display compassion too for the people who come to their door seeking medical help.
"Patients of rheumatism could be often seen to come to us for tiger bones, but we could give them nothing even when they get down on their knees pleading because it is not allowed."
The tiger farmers receive a sympathetic hearing from some NGOs which believe that conservation strategies work best when the conservation targets acquire some financial value.
"When trade is outlawed, only outlaws trade," says Barun Mitra of the Liberty Institute in Delhi.
Mr Mitra's thesis is that money should be made from tigers in a number of ways, from ecotourism to trading in tiger parts.

Xiongsen bear and tiger village Enlarge Image

The demand for crocodile skin used, he says, to be met by poaching. Nowadays the supply chain starts in crocodile farms, which provide the same material at a fraction of the cost.
As a result, crocodile numbers in the wild have risen; and he believes exactly the same thing could happen with tigers.
"The tiger could easily earn its keep and buy its way out of extinction, if we allow it to do so," Mr Mitra concludes.
Some observers point to a big distinction between farming and ranching, which is what may have saved crocodiles.
The CITES definition of ranching entails regularly gathering eggs from the wild to ensure genetic diversity of the captive breeding stock, while leaving enough behind to ensure the wild population continues - all done under licence.
And Sue Lieberman of WWF International believes captive tigers will do nothing for their wild relatives.
"It costs a lot to keep a tiger in captivity, and next to nothing to kill them in the wild," she says.
"In any case, legitimate traditional medicine doesn't need tiger parts. And those who use tiger bone prefer bones from wild animals."
Farming for conservation
During debates, Wang Weisheng, from the Wildlife Management Division of China's forestry department, said the domestic trade would not be re-opened unless that trade would assist in conservation.

Farmed tigers lose their hunters skills, opponents say

A resolution passed here by consensus - ie, with China's endorsement - says that captive populations should be reduced "to a level supportive only of conserving wildlife".
But what does that mean? How many might be needed to support conservation?
"That might depend from region to region, on the habitat - it might be two in one place and 10 in the next," said India's delegate Rajesh Gopal from the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

China has done a great deal in 14 years, in terms of education, enforcement, and banning tiger products from traditional medicine Sue Lieberman, WWF International

"We don't really need any captive tigers," he added.
But Mr Weisheng suggested sales of tiger products to hospitals could raise money which could then be ploughed back into conservation - a very different definition which could, potentially, result in an increased captive stock.
In the shops?
Next month China is hosting a meeting at which scientists, economists, NGOs and policymakers will thrash through the various aspects of this issue.
A decision to approve the trade would bring outcry from neighbouring countries, western governments, and activists.
"China has done a great deal in 14 years, in terms of education, enforcement, and banning tiger products from traditional medicine," comments Dr Lieberman.
"So why they would want to risk all that now, just to give a bit of profit to a few rich businessmen, I don't know."
But some of those businessmen are apparently making a profit from tiger parts already.
Earlier this year, undercover reporters from the UK's ITN visited Guilin tiger farm and found that tiger meat was being sold illegally. The origin of the meat was validated by an independent laboratory in China.
John Sellar, senior enforcement officer with CITES, told delegates that the US Fish and Wildlife Service has now endorsed the Chinese laboratory's findings. That has been communicated to the Chinese government, he said.
If China decides it is not worth the effort and brings the tiger farming era to a close, one thorny issue will be what to do with the 5,000 tigers already in captivity.
They lack the instincts needed to survive in the wild. And coming from a small gene pool, they have little to offer the existing wild population.
But that will be a single problem requiring a single solution. For Valmik Thapar, a much larger problem looms if farms are not closed and the tiger trade banned forever - the final extinction of this magnificent predator.
"History will never forgive one human being or one collective of human beings if we take any other decision," he says.

bush meat supermarket

'Barcodes' tackle bush meat trade

Bush meat is a key part of the diet for many in central Africa

Researchers have developed a new tool in the fight against the illegal hunting and trading of wild animals.

"We can use a small sequence of DNA as a species identifier in the same way as a barcode," says George Amato of the American Museum of Natural History.
The technique can accurately identify an animal species, even once it has processed and turned into meat or other products.
The illegal trade in bush meat has grown dramatically over recent years.
Hunting for income or subsistence is traditional in Asia, South and Central America and West and Central Africa.
There is also increasing international demand for meat and other products from "exotic" wild animals.
The trade is difficult to monitor but estimated to be worth billions of dollars a year.
Knowing the species can help trace where an animal is from, and therefore help determine whether the hunting and killing was illegal.
Along with traditional techniques like education, it could help control the trade.
Health concerns
"All sorts of species are hunted, from snails up to elephants," says Noelle Kumpell from the Zoological Society of London.

Scientists hope to use the technique to identify goods sold in markets

She manages conservation programmes which include the monitoring of the bush meat trade in west and central Africa.
"Conservationists are particularly worried about the impact on the more vulnerable species, which are the larger, more slowly reproducing species such as great apes, or elephants."
As well as causing problems for conservation there are health concerns over eating species like apes which are closely related to us, as there is a risk of transmitting diseases.
To develop the DNA barcode, scientists had to find a region of DNA that is varied enough to distinguish between species, and resilient enough that it can be found in leather, bone, or dried meat.
Database
They are now building a database of the wild species so that products can be checked and compared.
"The whole point of this new development was to make a useful new tool for monitoring the trade at point of origin, whether it's in the field, in markets, at airports, and all along the chain of where these wildlife products might travel," Mr Amato told BBC Science in Action.
"The notion is that we'll be able to, very shortly, identify the barcode from the product locally, which could be right in a market. Then we will access the database over the internet, and get that information back, at point of origin."

carehome cons

Charities warn of care home costs

Like most western countries, the UK has an ageing population

Charities say families with elderly relatives in local authority care homes in England are struggling to meet demands for top-up fees.

Age Concern and Help the Aged say councils are paying about £60 a week less than it takes to provide services, forcing families to meet the shortfall.
Care Services Minister Phil Hope told the BBC the situation was "distressing" and "shouldn't be happening".
But the Local Government Association said Westminster must increase funding.
'No limitless pot'
Age Concern and Help the Aged said some relatives were being asked to contribute several hundred pounds a month in top-up care fees.
"As local authority budgets come under tighter pressure, it's definitely something we anticipate getting worse unless government ministers get together with local authority leaders and thrash something out here," spokesman Patrick South told the BBC.
One relative, Jean Cutts, told the BBC about her struggle to pay nearly £300 a month for her 97-year-old mother's council-run home.
"It's hit us critically," she said. "Whatever money comes into the bank is drained out every month."

We have to radically change our system of care for the future Care Services Minister Phil Hope

The National Care Association, which represents care homes, said they were being asked to provide a far greater range of services because people with complex medical needs who would previously have been cared for in hospital were now looked after in the community.
And David Rogers, from the Local Government Association, said that this wider remit, combined with an ageing population, presented a huge challenge for councils who did not have a "limitless pot of money".
'National care service'
Mr Hope said half a billion pounds extra had been allocated to fund care and it was "up to local authorities to make sure that they meet the assessed care needs that an individual has".
However, he did acknowledge that "we have to radically change our system of care for the future".
To do this, he said, the government was proposing a national care service "where everybody no matter what their income will get some help with their care and support".
The top-up fees row comes as Health Secretary Andy Burnham is set to speak about the healthcare "timebomb" facing Britain's ageing population.
In a speech on Friday, he will say that the current system is "creaking at the seams and can't cope", and will call on public and health professionals to give their opinions on how it should be reformed.
The Department of Health has launched a public consultation exercise - the Big Care Debate - to get people's views on how care and support should be funded and provided in the future.
Care Services Minister Phil Hope said: "Local councils make decisions to best meet the needs of people living in their area.
"To help them do this, we have increased investment in local council services by 39% cent since 1997 and this will rise to 45% by 2010-11.
"We have also put £520 million into making services more tailored to individuals needs.
"More of us are living longer - life expectancy is going up and advances in medical science mean that people with a disability are living longer.
"This is worth celebrating but does mean we need to radically change the way care is provided and paid for.
"We need a system that is fair, simple and affordable for everyone and gives excellent care wherever we live and whatever our needs."

biofuel bad science

Brazil defends biofuel's merits

By Gary Duffy BBC News, Sao Paulo

At the busy Sao Manoel ethanol plant, three hours drive from the city of Sao Paulo, the noise from the churning machinery seems relentless.

The Sao Manoel plant produces ethanol on an industrial scale

Truckloads of sugar cane arrive from the nearby fields, some cut down by hand, some - in a sign of things to come - removed by machine.
From sugar cane fields to the garages of Brazil, doubts about biofuels in other parts of the world have not visibly slowed the process here.
Marcus Jank, president of the Sugar Cane Producers Association believes ethanol from sugar cane brings environmental and economic benefits.
"The first benefit is to reduce dependence on oil," he says.
"In our case we have replaced 50% of petrol with ethanol and also it was possible to have reduced the price of fossil fuels because of the competition with ethanol.
"We estimate that if there was not ethanol the petrol price would be 30% higher in Brazil."
Flex fuel vehicles
Ethanol's strength in Brazil has undoubtedly been helped by the development of flex fuel cars, which can run on any combination of ethanol or conventional petrol.

We believe that we are going to double the ethanol area in the next 20 years, but it will still be only 2% of arable land Marcus Jank of the sugar cane producers association The rise, fall and rise of Brazil's biofuel

It is also widely available at petrol stations across the entire country and is generally the cheaper option.
The technology to make a car ready to run on flex fuel is neither complicated nor expensive - it costs just a few hundred dollars to adapt engines during the manufacturing process.
At the US automotive giant General Motors' (GM) plants in Brazil, there is no doubt that this is the future.
During the past three years, 100% of the cars rolling off the production lines here have been flex fuel, while across Brazil 90% of new cars are built the same way.
Future potential
The GM management in Brazil has enthusiastically embraced ethanol from sugar cane as an energy option.

Cars that can run on either ethanol or on petrol are common in Brazil

And looking to the future, GM's president here, Jaime Ardila, says if governments and the private sector work together then emerging technology will offer answers to some of the concerns about bio fuels.
"The debate that has occurred on ethanol for good reasons - the concerns about food and food prices and so on - has clouded a much more important issue," he says.
"If governments and the private sector can jointly develop technologies to produce ethanol from sources that don't affect food and water consumption and so on and then help with distribution the world will definitely be better off."
Slave labour?
Undoubtedly, cutting sugar cane by hand in the fields is some of the toughest work imaginable, and working conditions in the industry have long been controversial. In some parts of the country it is sometimes described as akin to forced labour.

One trillion litres of gasoline are used in the world, and 10% of that could come from renewable fuel such as ethanol from Brazil and other tropical countries Professor Jose Goldemberg, University of Sao Paulo

"In terms of slavery," says Braz Albertine, president of the Federation of Agricultural Workers in the State of Sao Paulo, "in Sao Paulo it is very difficult to say that here there is slavery work. In other states it has been found.
"We have already found worker' accommodation in terrible conditions, ethanol plants that delay payments or don't supply personal safety equipment.
"There are companies that work properly and others that don't."
The machines replacing the men who cut down sugar cane can already be seen in parts of the state of Sao Paulo and elsewhere.
Producers say this will help to address many concerns about working conditions.
At ethanol plants such as Sao Manoel, they say they keep within rules set by the government for rural workers, and have introduced changes to improve working practices.
Other fears have been raised by the Brazilian experience; some worry that the rapidly growing demand for ethanol will push crops and cattle further north, threatening the Amazon rainforest.

Brazil is keen to export more ethanol made from sugar cane

It is a concern that Marcus Jank of the sugar cane producers association is keen to reject.
"We are using 3.5 million hectares to produce sugar cane ethanol, and there are 200 million hectares of pastures in Brazil, so it is extremely small," he says.
"We believe that we are going to double the ethanol area in the next 20 years, but it will still be only 2% of arable land."
Greater access
If concerns about conditions are addressed, and land is well managed, says Professor Jose Goldemberg, of the University of Sao Paulo, ethanol from sugar cane has much to offer the developing world.
"In the next 10 years it offers a replacement of 10% of the gasoline (petrol) in the world, which is a large amount," he says.
"Today, about one trillion litres of gasoline are used in the world, and 10% of that could come from renewable fuel such as ethanol from Brazil and other tropical countries.
This, he claims would happen "without damaging food production, and without indirect effects such as damaging the Amazon forest and increasing deforestation".
To fully realise that potential Brazil and other developing countries will need greater access to world markets.
And that is exactly the kind of argument they have been putting forward as part of efforts to conclude the Doha trade talks in recent days.

sugar/diabeties/green

Brazil eyes Amazon sugar cane ban

Critics say plantations are pushing further into the rainforest

The Brazilian government has unveiled plans to ban sugar cane plantations in environmentally sensitive areas.

The proposal, which must be passed by Congress, comes amid concerns that Brazil's developing biofuels industry is increasing Amazon deforestation.
Environment Minister Carlos Minc said the measures would mean ethanol made from sugar cane would be "100% green".
The government agenda is becoming more environmentally friendly ahead of the 2010 presidential poll, analysts say.
The plans unveiled by Mr Minc would limit sugar cane plantations to 7.5% of Brazilian territory or 64m hectares, and prevent the clearing of new land for the crop.

Brazil has a well-developed programme of ethanol fuel

The proposed legislation, expected to be put to Congress next year, would also prohibit the building of ethanol distillation plants in food-growing areas or in the vast wetlands of the Pantanal, on Brazil's border with Bolivia.
Brazil, the world's top producer of sugar, has long championed ethanol as an environmentally friendly source of energy but concerns have grown over its potential hazards.
Critics have said that the spread of sugar cane plantations into areas like the Amazon and the Pantanal has increased deforestation.
"This legislation is extremely welcome because it sends a clear signal to farmers and to the world that the government wants to exercise control," Paulo Moutinho from environmental group Imazon told the AFP news agency.
Green votes
The debate over the environmental credentials of ethanol has become increasingly sensitive in Brazil, raising tensions among ministers, says the BBC's Gary Duffy in Sao Paulo.
But our correspondent says that as next year's presidential election approaches, the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been stressing its green credentials with renewed vigour.
President Lula, who enjoys high approval ratings, cannot stand for a third term but is keen to see his chief of staff Dilma Rousseff succeed him.
Complicating the electoral scene, however, is the likely candidacy for the Green Party of Marina Silva, the former environment minister, who left the president's Workers Party (PT) earlier this year.
Ms Silva, a stanch defender of the Amazon rainforest, is highly unlikely to win but with her green background she could help to splinter the PT base and take some votes from Ms Rousseff.

tufted puffin

Rare bird gets twitchers flocking

http://www.richimag.co.uk/chickenoregg/

The tufted puffin landed on the water in front of birdwatcher Murray Wright

Birdwatchers are flocking to the Kent coast following reports of a sighting of a Pacific seabird never seen before in Britain.

A tufted puffin was sighted at the Oare Marshes nature reserve, near Faversham, according to the Birdguides website.
Fiona Barclay, of Birdguides, said the creature was seen flying up and down the Swale on Wednesday.
If verified it will be the first time the bird, found in the North Pacific Ocean, has been sighted in the UK.
Grahame Madge, of the RSPB, said: "If it's accepted it will be a first for Britain and will obviously attract a great deal of attention.
Yellow tufts
"It's something that's clearly significant, to get a seabird from another ocean in the north Atlantic."
If it is confirmed, the bird's arrival would be the latest in a run of such seabirds turning up in the Atlantic, Mr Madge said.
Jason Mitchell, reserve warden for Kent Wildlife Trust, added: "The nature reserve is no stranger to rare birds and each year we seem to turn up something special but a first for the UK is just astonishing.
"This is the first time the puffin, which is normally found in the Pacific and is recognisable by its thick red bill and yellow tufts, has been seen in the UK and only the second time in Europe."
The tufted puffin is a similar size to the puffin found in the UK.

e coli 2

E.coli inquiry shuts second farm

Godstone Farm was closed to the publi

A second farm linked to a children's animal attraction at the centre of an E.coli outbreak has agreed to close amid criticism over its hygiene regime.

Horton Park Children's Farm in Epsom - a "sister farm" to Godstone Farm - now linked to 40 cases of E.coli - has agreed to close voluntarily.
Hygiene arrangements there were found to be unsatisfactory, the Health Protection Agency has said.
A letter at Horton Park's entrance stressed it had no E.coli cases.
But a spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said: "The hygiene arrangements were found to be unsatisfactory and the HPA advised the local authority that the farm should be closed immediately while these defects were rectified."
She confirmed that officials were not aware of any cases of E.coli O157 linked to Horton Park, which has the same owners as Godstone Farm.
The letter displayed at the entrance to the farm said it had closed as a temporary measure "owing to concerns expressed by us and others, and due to the slight risk to our customers of the chance of disease".
'Precautionary measure'
It said the farm would remain closed until everything had been done to eliminate or reduce any potential risk to customers and friends.
It added: "Horton Farm has had no suspected or actual cases of E.coli and that this is a precautionary measure."
Midge McCall, a spokeswoman for Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, said the HPA had asked the council's environmental health team to inspect Horton Park.

A notice at Horton Park said the closure was a precautionary move

She said: "Following subsequent advice from the HPA, the children's farm in Horton Lane, Epsom, has decided to close temporarily as a precautionary measure."
The 40 confirmed E.coli cases linked to Godstone Farm include 14 children who are in hospital.
Four of the youngsters are seriously ill, seven are in a stable condition, and three are improving.
A pair of two-year-old twins from Paddock Wood in Kent - Aaron and Todd Furnell - have suffered acute kidney failure.
On Wednesday, the chief executive of the HPA, Justin McCracken, telephoned the parents of some of the children most affected by the outbreak to apologise to them in person about delays in closing Godstone Farm.

Twins Todd [left] and Aaron Furnell are in a stable condition in hospital

Initially, the agency said the first case came to light on 27 August, but it later emerged it had received a report of two cases in the previous week.
Mr McCracken said the position the families had found themselves in was unbearable and what had happened "might have been avoidable".
An independent investigation into the handling of the outbreak has been commissioned.
A press statement issued by Richard Oatway on behalf of Godstone Farm said all the staff were very upset about the outbreak and hoped everyone made a full and speedy recovery.
Mr Oatway said he and a Mrs Flaherty had run Godstone Farm since 1980.
He added: "Our main priority has always been to make sure that the farm is safe for everyone who comes here to visit.
"This included our own children and grandchildren.
"We have cooperated fully with all the authorities from the very beginning and will of course continue to do so."

The closure of Horton Park Children's Farm, in Epsom is over hygiene concerns

E,Coli

More E.coli cases linked to farm

Godstone Farm was closed to the public on Saturday

Five more people have contracted E.coli in an outbreak linked to a children's farm in Surrey.

Of 45 confirmed cases, 12 are children being treated in hospital. Four of them are seriously ill, six are in a stable condition and two more are improving.
Godstone Farm was closed to the public on Saturday following the outbreak.
Its sister farm, Horton Park in Epsom, closed voluntarily after the Health Protection Agency (HPA) found hygiene arrangements to be unsatisfactory.
The HPA advised the local authority that the farm be closed immediately while the "defects were rectified".
A spokeswoman for Horton Park Children's Farm said the decision to close the farm on Wednesday evening was made because of the perceived "slight risk" of more children contracting E.coli.
The letter displayed at the entrance to the farm said it had closed as a temporary measure "owing to concerns expressed by us and others, and due to the slight risk to our customers of the chance of disease".
HPA officials are not aware of any cases of E.coli linked to Horton Park farm.
Since the outbreak the HPA has apologised to parents for delays in closing Godstone Farm and an independent investigation has begun.

oldest king todate ?

Oldest T. rex relative unveiled

By Rebecca Morelle BBC News science reporter

The G. wucaii was found in the Junggar Basin, north-west China (Image: Zhongda Zhang/IVPP) Enlarge Image

The forefather of the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex has been discovered, scientists report.
The 160-million-year-old fossil is the oldest tyrannosaur ever found.
The researchers were surprised to learn the 3m-long dinosaur sported a spectacular crest on its head which may have been brightly coloured.
The discovery, unveiled in the journal Nature, might reveal how early tyrannosaurs evolved into the T. rex 100 million years later.
The new species was found in the Junggar Basin, an area rich in dinosaur fossils, in the far north-west corner of China.
'Crowned dragon'
A local labourer, hired to search for ancient bones, happened upon two dinosaur skeletons: a 12-year-old adult and a six-year-old juvenile. Both were found to be remarkably intact.
The international team have named the dinosaur, which hails from the Late Jurassic Period, Guanlong wucaii (G. wucaii) which is derived from the Chinese for "crowned dragon".

We suspect that the crest was highly coloured and probably a display structure of some kind Prof James Clark, George Washington University

Professor James Clark, an author on the paper and a palaeontologist at George Washington University, US, told the BBC News website of the discovery.
"We found two skeletons of what we call a therapod dinosaur. When we looked at them very closely we found that they are a relative of Tyrannosaurus rex - making them the most primitive tyrannosaur relatives that we have seen," he explained.
Tyrannosaurs were the dominant group of predators during the Late Cretaceous Period. This era, about 65 to 100 million years ago, marked the final chapter before dinosaurs became extinct.
It was during this time the T. rex roamed. The most famed member of the tyrannosaur family; its immense size of 9-13m, huge teeth and tiny but savagely clawed forearms have made it the beast of choice for many Hollywood films.
Evolution clues
Professor Clark described how the G. wucaii would have looked: "The most obvious thing was that it had a big crest in the middle of its head. For carnivorous dinosaurs that's pretty unusual.
"We suspect that the crest was highly coloured and probably a display structure of some kind."
He said that it shared some features with the later tyrannosaurs, such as the T. rex. It had sharp teeth, similar muscle scars on its hips and probably ran on two legs.

The T. rex was much larger than its relative, the G. wucaii

But the G. wucaii differed markedly in terms of its size: at 3m it was much smaller. In addition, its more primitive skull and pelvic features would suggest that that it was an intermediate animal between tyrannosaurs and the coelurosaurs - an even older, related group of dinosaurs which are thought to be the predecessors to modern birds.
The researchers hope that the find will reveal more about the primitive phase of tyrannosaur evolution.
"Guanlong shows us how the small coelurosaurian ancestors of tyrannosaurs took the first step that led to the giant T. rex almost 100 million years later," Professor Clark said.
Most of the tyrannosaur fossils that have been found date to the latter years of tyrannosaurs' existence, and there are very few early specimens.
Prior to the discovery of the G. wucaii, the 130 million-year-old feathered Dilong paradoxus (D. paradoxus) reported in 2004, was the oldest tyrannosaur known.
Dr Paul Barrett, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum, commented: "The discovery of this new animal pushes the origin of the group containing T. rex further back in time and also shows that early tyrannosaurs had a much wider distribution than previously thought."
The researchers believe the G. wucaii, with its bizarre crest, will begin to fill in some of the gaps of our knowledge of tyrannosaurs.
"This is 160 million years old, there are almost 100 million years of fossil records between it and T. rex and there are only a few tyrannosaurs that we know of between that," said Professor Clark.
"It is telling us that we are just getting into finding the missing records of these early tyrannosaurs."

The Guanlong lies at the base of the lineage of tyrannosaurides The Eotyrannus was dwarfed by other predators in its environment The T. rex was a member of the Tyrannosauridae family

t.rex

Ancestor of T. rex found in China

Scientists are building a family tree for Tyrannosaurus rex

Fossils found in China may give clues to the evolution of Tyrannosaurus rex.

Uncovered near the city of Jiayuguan, the fossil finds come from a novel tyrannosaur dubbed Xiongguanlong baimoensis.
The fossils date from the middle of the Cretaceous period, and may be a "missing link", tying the familiar big T. rex to its much smaller ancestors.
The fossils show early signs of the features that became pronounced with later tyrannosaurs.
Paleontological knowledge about the family of dinosaurs known as tyrannosaurs is based around two distinct groups of fossils from different parts of the Cretaceous period, which ran from approximately 145 to 65 million years ago.
One group dates from an early part of the period, the Barremian, and the other is from tens of millions of years later.
Physical form
Before now it has been hard for palaeontologists to trace the lineage from one group to the other.
"We've got a 40-50 million year gap in which we have very little fossil record," said Peter Makovicky, associate curator at the Field Museum in Chicago, who helped to lead the US/Chinese team that uncovered the fossil.

Hadrosaurs - duck-billed dinosaurs - spread rapidly in the late Cretaceous

But, he said, X baimoensis was a "nice link" between those two groups.
"We're filling in that part of the fossil record," he said.
Writing in the Royal Society's journal Proceedings B, Dr Makovicky and colleagues suggest that X baimoensis is a "phylogenetic, morphological, and temporal link" between the two distinct groups of tyrannosaurs.
The fossil has some hallmarks of large tyrannosaurs such as a boxy skull, reinforced temple bones to support large jaw muscles, modified front nipping teeth and a stronger spine to support a large head.
But it also shows features absent from older tyrannosaurs, such as a long thin snout.
An adult would have stood about 1.5m tall at the hip and weighed about 270kg. By contrast, an adult T. rex was about 4m tall at the hip and weighed more than 5 tonnes.
Wider net
The same edition of Proceedings B features papers about two other sets of dinosaur fossils.
One discovery was made in China by many of the palaeontologists who found the tyrannosaur. The samples found in the Yujingzi Basin came from a dinosaur that resembled the modern ostrich.
While many of these ornithomimosaurs have been found before, analysis of the bones of the new species, dubbed Beishanlong grandis, suggest it was one of the biggest.
The specimen found by the palaeontologists was thought to be 6m tall and weigh about 626kg.
Alongside in Proceedings B was work on the remains of a duck-billed dinosaur found in Uzbekistan called Levnesovia transoxiana.
Analysis of the fossils, by Hans-Dieter Sues of the Smithsonian in Washington and Alexander Averianov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, may shed light on the waves of expansion hadrosaurs undertook during the late Cretaceous.