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Zanabazar

Say it: zan-ah-BAZ-ar

Name means: “named after the Mongolian Buddhist monk and scholar Zanabazar”1

Ate: MeatRaptorsLate Cretaceous

Zanabazar was a smart, bird-like dinosaur that lived in what is now Mongolia. It had a big brain for its size and sharp claws for hunting. This troodontid was one of the largest of its kind, with a skull as long as a school ruler!2 1

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Mongolia (Omnogov Province), Nemegt Formation2

Food

Meat2 3

Length

2 to 3 m2

estimated from skull size and related troodontids

Weight

20 kg to 50 kg2

Height

0.8 to 1.2 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 12 house cats

as long as 3 dogs nose to tailas long as 17 bananas end to endas heavy as 10 watermelonsup to the handle of a door

How big was Zanabazar compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Zanabazar's skull was 272 mm long, making it the largest known troodontid skull.2

It lived during the Maastrichtian age, about 72 to 66 million years ago, right before the dinosaurs went extinct.2

Zanabazar was originally named Saurornithoides junior in 1974, but was given its own genus in 2009.2 1

Its brain was smaller than that of its relative Troodon, even though Zanabazar was bigger.1

Zanabazar had a special hole in its skull called a posttemporal fenestra, which helped lighten the head.2

It laid eggs, like all troodontids, and probably took care of its babies.2

AI-made picture of Zanabazar — An AI-made picture of how Zanabazar 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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Myth buster

Myth: Some people think Zanabazar was a dromaeosaur like Velociraptor.

Truth: Zanabazar is actually a troodontid, a different group of bird-like dinosaurs that were probably smarter and had bigger brains.2

For dino experts

Scientific name: Zanabazar
Named by: Norell et al. 20094
Group: Raptors
Family / clade: Troodontidae4
Classification: Theropoda > Troodontidae4
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)4
Rock formations: Nemegt4
Countries: Mongolia4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: The first fossil was found in the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia and named Saurornithoides junior by Barsbold in 1974. In 2009, Norell and colleagues gave it its own genus, Zanabazar.2 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Zanabazar was, because only one skull and some bones have been found.2

Where the facts come from

A review of the Mongolian Cretaceous dinosaur Saurornithoides (Troodontidae, Theropoda). (American Museum novitates, no. 3654) (digitallibrary.amnh.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Zanabazar Norell et al. 2009 - Encyclopedia of Life (eol.org)
Zanabazar 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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