Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Linhenykus, a new one-fingered alvarezsauroid dinosaur from Inner Mongolia

A one-clawed theropod.
An artist's rendering of the one-fingered, short-armed new dinosaur Linhenykus monodactylus (National Geographic)

Scientists named the new dinosaur Linhenykus monodactylus, after the nearby city of Linhe. The work was recently published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).


The new dinosaur belongs to the Alvarezsauroidea, a branch of the carnivorous dinosaur group Theropoda. Theropods gave rise to modern birds and include such famous dinosaurs as Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor.

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