Therizinosaurus

Characteristics ~ ~ ~ ~

Therizinosaurus was around 6 meters tall and weighed around 5 tons. Therizinosaurus had one meter long claw bones even without the layer of keratin that would go over them. These would have been for foraging; grabbing onto tree branches so Therizinosaurus could eat the leaves. There’s no supporting evidence for this but the claws were likely used in self defense as well. The hands faced inwards so the hands would be good for swiping and scratching. Species known to have coexisted with Therizinosaurus are hadrosaurs Barsboldia and Saurolophus, Titanosaurs Nemegtosaurus and Opisthocoelicaudia dome-heads like Homalocephale and Prenocephale. As well as other species like Gallimimus Protoceratops Velociraptor Deinocheirus Tarcia, Mononykus, and Tarbosaurus. Therazinosaurus had 4 toes on each foot.

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History & Fossils ~ ~ ~ ~

The Therizinosaurus holotype was discovered in 1948 by Evgeny Maleev and consists of some toe unguals, its massive claws and some arm bones. From this in Maleev believed that Therizinosaurus was a large turtle with claws for harvesting seaweed even though the negment was mostly floodplains which wouldn't have that. cheloniformis actually means turtle and T. cheloniformis means harvesting turtle as it would have been speculated to harvest seeweed with it's claws. However it would be the discovery of other Therizinosaurs like Segnosaurus, would the appearence of Therizinosaurus be understood.