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Dzharacursor

Say it: JAR-uh-KUR-sor

Name means: “Dzharakuduk runner”1

Ate: PlantsOstrich dinosLate Cretaceous

Dzharacursor was a fast, ostrich-like dinosaur that lived in what is now Uzbekistan. It ran on two long legs and used its beak to eat plants and maybe small animals. This dinosaur is one of the oldest ornithomimids ever found in Asia!1 2

Lived

94 to 90 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Dzharakuduk, Uzbekistan1 3

Food

Plants3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Dzharacursor was first thought to be a different dinosaur called Archaeornithomimus, but in 2025 scientists gave it its own name.1

Its name comes from the place where its bones were found, Dzharakuduk, and the Latin word for runner.1

One of its thigh bones might have medullary bone, a special tissue that female birds grow when they are about to lay eggs. This suggests Dzharacursor females became ready to have babies before they were fully grown.1

Dzharacursor lived alongside other dinosaurs like the big predator Ulughbegsaurus and the tyrannosaur Timurlengia.1

Scientists have found many bones of Dzharacursor, including parts of its skull, backbone, arms, and legs.1

Dzharacursor is one of the oldest ornithomimids known from Asia, living about 90 million years ago.2

AI-made picture of Dzharacursor — An AI-made picture of how Dzharacursor might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Dzharacursor

?How big was Dzharacursor?

Scientists have not given an exact size estimate for Dzharacursor yet. It was an ornithomimid, so it was probably medium-sized and built like a modern ostrich.1 3

?What did Dzharacursor eat?

Dzharacursor was a herbivore-omnivore, meaning it ate plants and maybe small animals. It had a beak and no teeth.3

?When did Dzharacursor live?

Dzharacursor lived during the Late Cretaceous Period, about 90 million years ago, in the Turonian age.1

?Where was Dzharacursor found?

Dzharacursor fossils were found in the Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan, at a place called Dzharakuduk.1 3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Dzharacursor
Named by: Averianov and Sues 20243
Group: Ostrich dinos
Family / clade: Ornithomimidae3
Classification: Theropoda > Ornithomimosauria3
Age of the rocks: 94 to 90 million years (Turonian)3
Rock formations: Bissekty3
Countries: Uzbekistan3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The first bone, a thigh bone from a young individual, was named as a new species of Archaeornithomimus in 1995 by Russian paleontologist Lev Nesov. In 2025, Alexander Averianov and Hans-Dieter Sues gave it its own genus, Dzharacursor.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Dzharacursor was, because only partial bones have been found.1

Where the facts come from

Dzharacursor (en.wikipedia.org)
A new ornithomimid theropod from the Upper Cretaceous Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan (exa.ai)
Dzharacursor in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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