Therizinosaurus

Name meaning:

Reaper lizard

Period of life:

72–66 mya

Period:

Cretaceous period

Habitat:

Floodplains

Taxonomy:

Theropods

Countries:

Cretaceous period Therizinosaurus | 3D Dinopedia

Citipati

Deinosuchus

Therizinosaurus ()

Therizinosaurus is one of the most unusual creatures ever to have lived on Earth. This giant dinosaur from the family Therizinosauridae inhabited what is now Mongolia more than 70 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous.

Its remains were discovered in 1948 during a joint Soviet–Mongolian expedition in southwestern Mongolia. Among the fossil fragments were enormous claws measuring up to 65 centimeters in length — the largest known among all dinosaurs. At first, scientists believed they had found the remains of a giant turtle, but further excavations clarified the situation. Additional discoveries — teeth, limb fragments, and parts of the skeleton — revealed a truly unique dinosaur: outwardly “predatory” in appearance, yet most likely herbivorous.

Therizinosaurus was striking in its morphology. It possessed massive forelimbs up to 2.5 meters long, armed with scythe-shaped claws that resembled blades. With an estimated mass of around five tonnes, its body reached 9–10 meters in length and approximately five meters in height. A small head with narrow jaws adapted for cropping vegetation sat atop a long, robust neck. Many paleontologists infer that its body was covered in feathers, which would have provided thermal insulation in the forested and humid regions it inhabited, where winters were cool and summers marked by heavy rainfall.

Its closest relatives included Segnosaurus and Erlikosaurus — dinosaurs with comparable body plans and ecological roles. Therizinosaurus fed primarily on plants, likely drawing branches toward itself by hooking them with its powerful claws. However, based on the dentition of related taxa, it may also have consumed small animals such as insects or lizards opportunistically.

If threatened by a predator, Therizinosaurus would have been a formidable adversary. Its long, curved claws were capable of inflicting severe wounds with a single strike. For this reason, researchers sometimes compare it to Freddy Krueger — the fictional character with blades for fingers. Unlike the cinematic figure, however, Therizinosaurus was a real and remarkable inhabitant of the Late Cretaceous world.

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