Alectrosaurus

Alectrosaurus means 'alone lizard' because when it was first discovered, scientists thought it was a unique type of dinosaur.1

The only known skeleton of Alectrosaurus is mostly a hind leg and some foot bones. No complete skull has been found yet.1

Alectrosaurus had a special foot feature: the ends of its toe bones were swollen and raised up like little pedestals. Scientists call this the 'pediculate' condition.1

It lived about 90 to 83 million years ago, during the Coniacian to Campanian stages of the Late Cretaceous.1

Alectrosaurus was a tyrannosauroid, which means it was an early cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex, but much smaller and more slender.1

Some fossils from Uzbekistan and Mongolia were once thought to be Alectrosaurus, but scientists now think those bones belong to other, unknown tyrannosaurs.1