Therizinosauria is an extinxt clade of theropod dinosaurs, that lived during the Cretaceous Period, in what are
Reconstruction of a typical therizinosaurid
nowdays Western USA, Mongolia and China.
The name Therizinosauria comes from Greek, from the words "Therizo" (meaning "to reap" or "to cut") and "sauros" (meaning "lizard").
Therizinosaurs were related with either basal theropod and maniraptorids.
Characteristics[]
Therizinosaurids were herbivorous, bipedal theropods, with sizes ranging from 2,5m, or 8ft (in case of Beipiaosaurus inexpextus), to 10-12m, or 33-40ft (in case of Therizinosaurus cheloniformis and possibily Deinocheirus).
This dinosaurs had very unusual characteristics among theropods, that resembles prosauropod ones. Their body-
Nothronychus - Planet Dinosaur - Episode 6 - BBC One
plan, in fact, consisted in: a small, beaked head, a long, S-shaped neck, a very wide torso, strong legs with four-digitated feet, and a relatively short tail. Furthermore, their most distinguishable feature was a pair of long arms, with three-fingered hands, every finger finishing with a impressively long, sharp claw, that could reach even 3ft of lenght in Therizinosaurus.
Therizinosaurids were also covered in acoat of down-like feathers.
Classification[]
- Therizinosauroidea:
- Falcarius utahnensis;
- Beipiaosaurus inexpectus;
- Martharaptor greenriverensis;
- Jianchangosaurus yixianensis;
- Alxasaurus elesitainensis;
- Thrizinosauridae:
- Erliansaurus bellamanus;
- Nashiungosaurus sp.;
- Neimongosaurus yangi;
- Segnosaurus galbinensis;
- Erlikosaurus andrewsi;
- Suzhousaurus megatherioides;
- Enigmosaurus mongoliensis;
- Therizinosaurus cheloniformes;
- Nothronychus sp.
- Thrizinosauridae: