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Patagonykus

Say it: PAT-uh-GON-ih-kus

Name means: “Patagonian claw”1

Ate: MeatMeat-eating dinosLate Cretaceous

Patagonykus was a small, fast dinosaur that lived in what is now Argentina. It had a big claw on its hand and probably used it to dig for insects or small animals.1 2

Lived

94 to 86 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Neuquén Province, Argentina1 2

Food

Meat2

Length

1 m1

estimate by Gregory S. Paul in 2010

Weight

3.5 kg1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 29 bananas

as long as 2 house cats nose to tailas long as 6 bananas end to endabout as heavy as a house catas heavy as 29 bananas

How big was Patagonykus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Patagonykus belonged to a group of dinosaurs called alvarezsauroids, which had very short arms with one big claw.1

Its fossils were found in the Portezuelo Formation, which is about 93 to 85 million years old.1 2

The only known skeleton of Patagonykus is missing its skull, but it includes many bones from the back, hips, arms, and legs.1

Patagonykus was about 1 meter (3.3 feet) long and weighed around 3.5 kilograms (7.7 pounds), about as heavy as a small cat.1

Scientists think Patagonykus lived on the ground and was an active, fast-moving hunter.2

AI-made picture of Patagonykus — An AI-made picture of how Patagonykus 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 Patagonykus

?What did Patagonykus eat?

It was a ground-dwelling carnivore, probably eating insects or small animals using its big claw.1 3

?How big was Patagonykus?

About 1 meter (3.3 feet) long and weighed around 3.5 kilograms (7.7 pounds), about as heavy as a small cat.1

?When did Patagonykus live?

It lived during the Late Cretaceous, about 90.5 to 88.5 million years ago.1

?Where was Patagonykus found?

Its fossils were found in the Portezuelo Formation in Neuquén Province, Argentina.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Patagonykus
Named by: Novas 19943
Group: Meat-eating dinos
Family / clade: Alvarezsauroidea3
Classification: Theropoda3
Age of the rocks: 94 to 86 million years (Turonian / Coniacian)3
Rock formations: Portezuelo3
Countries: Argentina3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Patagonykus was named by Argentine paleontologist Fernando Novas in 1994. The first fossils were found in the Sierra del Portezuelo area of Argentina.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly where Patagonykus fits in the dinosaur family tree. Some think it is a close relative of Alvarezsaurus, while others place it outside the main alvarezsaurid group.1

Where the facts come from

Patagonykus (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Patagonykus 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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