Alxasaurus
Alxasaurus was an early therizinosaur, a weird dinosaur with a long neck, a big belly, and huge claws on its hands. It walked on two legs and ate plants, using its beak to snip leaves and its big gut to digest them.1
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Fun facts
Alxasaurus is one of the earliest known therizinosauroids, but it already had the long neck, short tail, and big claws of later relatives.1
Its hand claws were long, curved, and sharp, but it used them for gathering plants, not for hunting.1
Alxasaurus had a semilunate carpal bone in its wrist, a feature shared with birds and other maniraptoran theropods.1
Five specimens of Alxasaurus were found together in 1988 during the China-Canada Dinosaur Project.1
Its fossils come from the Bayin-Gobi Formation, which is about 113 to 100 million years old (Early Cretaceous).12
The discovery of Alxasaurus helped prove that therizinosaurs were actually weird theropod dinosaurs, not late-surviving sauropodomorphs.1
Most asked questions about Alxasaurus
?How big was Alxasaurus?
About 3.8 to 4 metres (12 to 13 feet) long and weighed around 380 to 400 kilograms (840 to 880 pounds). It stood about 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) tall at the hip.1
?What did Alxasaurus eat?
Alxasaurus was a plant-eater. It used its beak to snip leaves and had a big gut to digest them.1
?Did Alxasaurus have feathers?
No direct feather fossils have been found for Alxasaurus, but its close relative Beipiaosaurus had feathers, so it probably did too.1
?When did Alxasaurus live?
Alxasaurus lived during the Early Cretaceous period, about 113 to 100 million years ago.1
?Where was Alxasaurus found?
Its fossils were found in the Bayin-Gobi Formation of Inner Mongolia, China.1
?Is Alxasaurus a dinosaur?
Yes, Alxasaurus is a theropod dinosaur. It belongs to a weird group called therizinosaurs.1
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Myth buster
Myth: Alxasaurus was a slow, clumsy dinosaur.
Truth: Alxasaurus was a bipedal theropod that walked on two legs and was likely agile, with a long neck and tail for balance.1
For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Alxasaurus
- Named by
- Russell and Dong 19942
- Group
- Odd feathered dinos
- Family / clade
- Therizinosauroidea2
- Classification
- Theropoda > Therizinosauria2
- Age of the rocks
- 121 to 113 million years (Aptian)2
- Rock formations
- Bayangobi2
- Countries
- China2
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
- Discovery
- Alxasaurus was named by Dale Russell and Dong Zhiming in 1993 based on five specimens found in 1988 in the Bayin-Gobi Formation of Inner Mongolia, China.1
- Still debated
- Scientists are not sure exactly how Alxasaurus is related to other therizinosaurs, because its skeleton shows a mix of primitive and advanced features.1
Where the facts come from
- Alxasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
- Alxasaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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