THERIZINOSAURUS
Therizinosaurus cheloniformis
Meaning: "Scythe Lizard"
📊 STATS
Size comparison:
As long as a school bus
📖 ABOUT THERIZINOSAURUS
Meet Therizinosaurus, the 'Scythe Lizard'! This dinosaur had HUGE claws, longer than your arm, but it used them to eat plants!
Imagine a dinosaur with claws longer than your entire arm! That's Therizinosaurus, a truly unique dinosaur that lived about 70 million years ago. Its name means 'Scythe Lizard,' and it gets that name from its enormous, curved claws. Each claw could grow to be over 50 centimeters long! But don't worry, these weren't for hunting. Therizinosaurus was a herbivore, meaning it munched on plants. Scientists believe it used its claws to pull branches towards its mouth and maybe even to defend itself from predators.
Therizinosaurus was a big fella, standing about 5 meters tall and walking on two legs. It lived in what is now Mongolia and China. Because only a few fossils have been found, paleontologists are still learning about Therizinosaurus. We think it might have had feathers, like some of its relatives, and a long neck to reach high into the trees. This amazing dinosaur shows us that not all dinosaurs were scary meat-eaters; some were gentle giants with incredible claws!
🔬 CLASSIFICATION
- Group
- Theropoda
- Family
- Therizinosauridae
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (100-66 Ma)
- Era
- 70.0 - 66.0 million years ago
🗺️ DISCOVERY
- Year
- 1954
- Discovered by
- Evgeny Maleev
- Location
- Mongolia
- Fossils found in
- Mongolia, China
🎨 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATION
Artistic reconstruction of Therizinosaurus based on fossil evidence
🗺️ WHERE FOSSILS WERE FOUND
Mongolia, China
🤓 FUN FACTS
- ✨ Therizinosaurus' claws were so long, they're the longest claws of any known land animal!
- ✨ Even though it had huge claws, Therizinosaurus was a plant-eater!
- ✨ Scientists first discovered Therizinosaurus based on just its arms, and they thought it was a giant sea turtle!
- ✨ Therizinosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous period, the same time as Tyrannosaurus Rex, but they lived on different continents!
- ✨ It might have used its long neck to reach high into trees, like a giraffe!
💡 DID YOU KNOW?
Get this: Therizinosaurus lived alongside early mammals! Can you imagine a tiny mammal scurrying around the feet of this giant, clawed herbivore?
