Therizinosaurus

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Therizinosaurus (/ˌθɛrəˌzɪnoʊˈsɔːrəs/ ⓘ; meaning 'scythe lizard') is a genus of very large therizinosaurid dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now the Nemegt Formation around 70 million years ago.

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Created May 9, 2025Updated Jul 30, 2025Archived since Oct 20, 2026

MAIN INFORMATION: Therizinosaurus (/ˌθɛrəˌzɪnoʊˈsɔːrəs/ ⓘ; meaning 'scythe lizard') is a genus of very large therizinosaurid dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now the Nemegt Formation around 70 million years ago. It contains a single species, Therizinosaurus cheloniformis.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: Therizinosaurus had a body, neck, head, tail and legs that were similar to that of an Ostrich or Emu. But a significant difference was that Therizinosaurus had opposable arm limbs that made it also have hands with large fingernails called "claws", mainly used as a defense or for eating and grabbing vegetation. Another difference was that Therizinosaurus had teeth inside of its beak, used for eating large foliage. Therizinosaurus had many feathers that were placed everywhere in the body, legs, arms and tail, another defense mechanism to decrease damages dealt to Therizinosaurus. Juvenile Therizinosaurus would have a bald but fuzzy and feathery head, have fragile claws, small talons but have fuzzy feathers as hides.

APPEARANCE: Therizinosaurus' feathers mainly colored a blend of gray and red on its body, the upper diameter of its neck and on its arms. The claws and legs of Therizinosaurus were colored light gray, while the beak of Therizinosaurus was colored light brown, with the armored tip of its beak gray.

PALEONTOLOGY: The unusual arms and body anatomy (extrapolated after relatives) of Therizinosaurus have been cited as an example of convergent evolution with chalicotheriines and other primarily herbivorous mammals, suggesting similar feeding habits. The elongated hand claws of Therizinosaurus were more useful when pulling vegetation within reach rather than being used for active attack or defense because of their fragility, however, they may have had some role for intimidation. Its arms also were particularly resistant to stress, which suggests a robust use of these limbs. Therizinosaurus was a very tall animal, likely having a reduced competition over the foliage in its habitat and outmatching predators like tyrannosaurid Tarbosaurus.

It was one of the last and the largest representative of its unique group, the Therizinosauria (formerly known as Segnosauria; the segnosaurs). During and after its original description in 1954, Therizinosaurus had rather complex relationships due to the lack of complete specimens and relatives at the time. Maleev thought the remains of Therizinosaurus to belong to a large turtle-like reptile, and also named a separate family for the genus: Therizinosauridae. Later on, with the discovery of more complete relatives, Therizinosaurus and kin were thought to represent some kind of Late Cretaceous sauropodomorphs or transitional ornithischians, even though at some point it was suggested that it may have been a theropod. After years of taxonomic debate, nevertheless, they are now placed in one of the major dinosaur clades, Theropoda, specifically as maniraptorans. Therizinosaurus is widely recovered within Therizinosauridae by most analyses.

Therizinosaurus was able to sit while consuming foliage from large shrubs and trees. The plant material would have been harvested with its hands and this action was likely favored by its elongated neck which prevented the use of large amounts of force and effort. As its arms were long enough to have touched the ground during certain stances, they could have helped the dinosaur to rise from a prone position. If browsing in a bipedal stance, Therizinosaurus may have been able to reach even higher vegetation supported by its short and robust feet. Whereas Chalicotherium was more suited to hook branches, Therizinosaurus was better at pushing large clumps of foliage because of its long claws. It is also possible that Therizinosaurus was less capable of great precision in its movements than was Chalicotherium, due to the latter having a more developed brain, dental and muscular capacities.

SETTINGS: Nemegt Formation, Gobi Desert, Mongolia.

SIZE: Therizinosaurus as an adult, was able to go up 5-6 meters tall in height, and go over 9-10 meters long in length, making Therizinosaurus one of the largest non-Sauropod dinosaurs to ever exist.

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Over 70 Million Years ago in the Maastrichtian era of the Late Cretaceous in Mongolia, would lie an endless sandy smooth desert landscape of Nemegt Formation. Although this desert was similar to the Gobi Desert, this desert was not a part of the Gobi desert, as it would've been underground in the upcoming millions of years. Vegetation and plants were stripped off the lands, and it seemed like no dinosaurs or any other animals had lived here due to this climate.

But there was one particular dinosaur that was trudged around the deserts of Nemegt Formation, one of the tallest dinosaurs- not a sauropod nor was it one of the largest. This dinosaur would be an example of evolution that changed this dinosaur alot, being one of the only herbivores in the theropod family, looking like a gigantic ostrich-emu hybrid with opposable feathered arms that grew claws, this dinosaur was...

Therizinosaurus.

A weird Theropod, Therizinosaurus had its own clade, Therizinosauridae, due to its uniqueness. Therizinosaurus closely resembled a bird like the emu and ostrich despite Therizinosaurus not being a bird; but just like every other dinosaur, instead an ancestor of birds, its feathers colored differently than the two mentioned, more of red, gray, and desert brown. Therizinosaurus' claws were used as a defense mechanism to scratch predators away, and were also used to grab plants and vegetation - if it could reach them due to a short range of its curved arms. Therizinosaurus as adults could reach 5-6 meters tall and 9-10 meters long, its 5 ton weight making it a relatively large and strong dinosaur, even taller than the largest predatory dinosaur; the Tyrannosaurus Rex, or due to Therizinosaurus being in Mongolia, a Tarbosaurus bataar.

This particular Therizinosaurus, an adult male, would be heading to a large lake that was situated in the sandy landscape, no other survival resources was seen anywhere else, than this lake of Freshwater. The Therizinosaurus was alone, as males preferred to be solitary against each other. Despite it could've felt lonely, this Therizinosaurus male was big enough to single handledly kill predators that were smaller as half its size, as Therizinosaurus had past the limit where predators could reach larger as itself. The Therizinosaurus slowly walked to the edge of the lake, its short but crowded feathers slightly danced in the wind, as the Therizinosaurus lowered its long-necked head to the water, its beak reaching in underwater as it drank, its behavior similar to birds.

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Over 70 Million Years ago in the Maastrichtian era of the Late Cretaceous in Mongolia, would lie a dense forest side in the night of Nemegt Formation.This forest of Nemegt was a contrast to the endless desert that lies around it, having many trees and vegetation with grounds of dirt and soil; this place was where dinosaurs could thrive in to grow. And plus, little to no predators roamed the forests... As of now.

But, there were chicks that were currently living in the forests, chicks of a dinosaur that were just a tenth of their adult size, and soon would be turning to look like a gigantic herbivorous hybrid of an ostrich and emu with large claws, that dinosaur was called...

Therizinosaurus.

A tenth of the adult's size, there were three chicks that were roaming; measuring over 0.9 meters long and weighing less than 30 pounds. Despite these three Therizinosaurus juveniles were hatched six months ago, they still did not meet the height of an adult Therizinosaurus's foot, presenting the sheer size of a Therizinosaurus once all three of these chicks grew to adult in upcoming years. These chicks didn't bear the details of a grown Therizinosaurus yet, currently having round-beaks, having fuzzy feathers as protection instead, but have quills of feathers at the side of their arms that grew claws as fingers, but they were fragile as of a juvenile. The trio of juvenile Therizinosaurus chicks were grouped with each other, as they had been left alone by their mother in terms of learning how to survive themselves.

As the three Juvenile Therizinosaurus chicks walked below the ferns that were large above them, they were in search of finding plants they were able to get their small beaks on. There were two males and one female chicks as mentioned, with one male and female following the other male chick. For now, the juvenile Therizinosaurus trio were in search of getting nutritious food, as they trudged lightly in their small forms across the forest grounds, careful enough to avoid predators in the night.

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