Khulsanurus

Say it: KOOL-soo-NOOR-us

Name means: “tail from Khulsan”1

Ate: MeatOdd feathered dinosLate Cretaceous

Khulsanurus was a small, feathered dinosaur that lived in the desert of Mongolia. It had a long tail and short, strong arms with big claws. It probably used its claws to dig for insects to eat.3 1

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Khulsan locality, Gobi Desert, Mongolia1 3

Food

Meat3

Length

1 to 2 m2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 4 house cats nose to tailas long as 11 bananas end to end

How big was Khulsanurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Khulsanurus is known from only a partial skeleton, including neck and tail bones, shoulder bones, and arm bones.1

It lived about 83 to 72 million years ago, during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous.3

Khulsanurus belonged to a group of dinosaurs called alvarezsaurids, which were small, bird-like theropods.1

Its fossils were found in the Barun Goyot Formation, a place that was once a sandy desert with some water.1

Other dinosaurs that lived alongside Khulsanurus include the horned dinosaur Bagaceratops and the long-necked Quaesitosaurus.1

The name Khulsanurus means 'tail from Khulsan', because its tail bones were some of the first fossils found.1

AI-made picture of Khulsanurus — An AI-made picture of how Khulsanurus 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.

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Khulsanurus
Named by: Averianov and Lopatin 20213
Group: Odd feathered dinos
Family / clade: Alvarezsauridae3
Classification: Theropoda > Alvarezsauridae3
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)3
Rock formations: Baruungoyot3
Countries: Mongolia3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Khulsanurus was named by paleontologists Alexander Averianov and Alexey Lopatin in 2021. The fossils were found at the Khulsan locality in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia.3 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Khulsanurus was, because only a few bones have been found.1

Where the facts come from

Khulsanurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Khulsanurus - (dinosanddesigns.com)
Khulsanurus 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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