Ondogurvel

Say it: ON-doh-GUR-vel

Name means: “egg lizard”1

Ate: MeatOdd feathered dinosLate Cretaceous

Ondogurvel was a tiny, speedy dinosaur that looked a bit like a bird. It had long legs for running and a strong claw on each hand for digging.3 2

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Nemegt locality, Barun Goyot Formation, Gobi Desert, Mongolia3 1

Food

Meat3 2

Length

0.5 to 1 m2

estimate based on related parvicursorines

Weight

2 kg to 5 kg2

Height

0.3 to 0.5 m2

at the hips

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How tall was it?

at the hips

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 1 house cats

as long as 2 house cats nose to tailas long as 6 bananas end to endabout as heavy as a house catas heavy as 42 bananas

How big was Ondogurvel compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Ondogurvel had a special foot where two of its toe bones (metatarsals II and IV) were completely fused together. No other alvarezsaurid dinosaur has this feature.1 2

It belonged to a group called Parvicursorinae, which had very short arms with only one big finger and a huge claw.2

The only known skeleton of Ondogurvel was found in 1999 by Russian paleontologist Vladimir Alifanov, but it was not described until 2022.1 2

Ondogurvel lived about 72 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.3 1

Its name comes from the Mongolian words for 'egg' and 'lizard', because its discoverer thought it might have eaten eggs.1

Ondogurvel was a fast runner. Its long, slender legs and special foot bones helped it sprint after small prey.2

AI-made picture of Ondogurvel — An AI-made picture of how Ondogurvel 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: Ondogurvel
Named by: Averianov and Lopatin 20223
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: Ondogurvel was named in 2022 by Alexander Averianov and Alexey Lopatin. The only fossil, a partial skeleton, was found in 1999 by Vladimir Alifanov in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia.1 2
Still debated: Some scientists think Ondogurvel might actually be the same dinosaur as Parvicursor, which is known only from a young animal. More fossils are needed to be sure.1

Where the facts come from

Ondogurvel (en.wikipedia.org)
A new alvarezsaurid theropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Gobi Desert, Mongolia - ScienceDirect (sciencedirect.com)
Ondogurvel in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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