(CNN) The so-called Frankenstein dinosaur is the missing link connecting plant-eating dinosaurs such as the Stegosaurus to a group including carnivorous ones such as the Tyrannosaurus rex, scientists have suggested. The results, published in the journal Biology Letters, suggest that Chilesaurus effectively fills a large gap between two of the major dinosaur groups, and shows how the divide between them may have happened.Chilesaurus, which was discovered in southern Chile, was first described in 2015. It lived during the Late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago, and has an odd collection of physical characteristics, which made it difficult to classify. The dino, which has been described as ‘Frankenstein’s monster,’ confused scientists because it had a head that "resembles that of a carnivore, but it has flat teeth for grinding up plant matter," according to a press release, discussing the findings. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Natural History Museum in the UK used a comprehensive dataset to analyse over 450 anatomical characteristics of early dinosaurs and correctly placed the creature, known as Chilesaurus, in the dinosaur family tree. NEWFOUND DINOSAUR LOOKS LIKE THE CREEPY LOVE CHILD OF A TURKEY AND AN OSTRICH

“Chilesaurus almost looks like it was stitched together from different animals, which is why it baffled everybody,” said Matthew Baron, a doctoral student in Cambridge University's Department of Earth Sciences and the paper’s joint first author, in a statement. In a new study done by the University of Cambridge, Chilesaurus, which lived 150 million years ago, scientists now believe the dinosaur is an early member of the "Ornithischia," a "bird-hipped" group that includes dinosaurs such as the Stegosaurus and Iguanadon. "Chilesaurus genuinely helps fill an evolutionary gap between two big dinosaur groups," said co-author Paul Barrett, president of Britain's Palaeontographical Society and a researcher at the Natural History Museum. “Its weird mix of features places it in a key position in dinosaur evolution and helps to show how some of the really big splits between the major groups might have come about.”

The latest findings were published in the journal Biology Letters.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge suggest that the Chilesaurus may be the so-called "missing link" between the Stegosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus.