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Therizinosauridae

 

 
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Therizinosauridae
 
 
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Therizinosauridae ("reaper lizards") is a family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 of advanced herbivorous or omnivorous theropod dinosaur
Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of Landform ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic Period until the end of the Cretaceous Period , when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event....
s. Therizinosaurid fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
 remains have been recovered from mid-late Cretaceous
Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide, is a geologic period from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period....
 Period deposits from Mongolia
Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and People's Republic of China to the south, east and west....
, China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, and the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
.

family Therizinosauridae was coined by Evgeny Maleev
Evgeny Maleev

Evgeny Aleksandrovich Maleev was a Russian paleontologist who named the armoured dinosaur Talarurus, the fearsome Tarbosaurus, and the enigmatic Therizinosaurus....
 in 1954 to contain the enigmatic Therizinosaurus cheloniformis
Therizinosaurus

Therizinosaurus is a genus of very large theropod dinosaur. Known from very incomplete remains, it is estimated to have grown up to 9.6 metre long and reach 3-6 metric ton in weight....
, which Maleev originally thought to be a species of giant "turtle
Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the Order Testudines , most of whose body is shielded by a special bone or cartilage animal shell developed from their ribs....
-like lizard." Subsequent studies found that Therizinosaurus was actually a bizarre theropod, and that the equally enigmatic segnosaurids were close relatives.






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Therizinosauridae ("reaper lizards") is a family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 of advanced herbivorous or omnivorous theropod dinosaur
Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of Landform ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic Period until the end of the Cretaceous Period , when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event....
s. Therizinosaurid fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
 remains have been recovered from mid-late Cretaceous
Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide, is a geologic period from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period....
 Period deposits from Mongolia
Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and People's Republic of China to the south, east and west....
, China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, and the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
.

Classification

The family Therizinosauridae was coined by Evgeny Maleev
Evgeny Maleev

Evgeny Aleksandrovich Maleev was a Russian paleontologist who named the armoured dinosaur Talarurus, the fearsome Tarbosaurus, and the enigmatic Therizinosaurus....
 in 1954 to contain the enigmatic Therizinosaurus cheloniformis
Therizinosaurus

Therizinosaurus is a genus of very large theropod dinosaur. Known from very incomplete remains, it is estimated to have grown up to 9.6 metre long and reach 3-6 metric ton in weight....
, which Maleev originally thought to be a species of giant "turtle
Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the Order Testudines , most of whose body is shielded by a special bone or cartilage animal shell developed from their ribs....
-like lizard." Subsequent studies found that Therizinosaurus was actually a bizarre theropod, and that the equally enigmatic segnosaurids were close relatives. Since the family Therizinosauridae was named earlier than Segnosauridae, the later name became a junior synonym of the former, which has taxonomic priority. Therizinosauridae was first given a phylogenetic definition by Paul Sereno
Paul Sereno

Paul Callistus Sereno is an United States paleontology who is the discoverer of several new dinosaur species on several continents. He has conducted excavations at sites as varied as Inner Mongolia, Argentina, Morocco and Niger....
 in 1998, who defined it as all dinosaurs closer to Erlikosaurus
Erlikosaurus

Erlikosaurus is a genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous, belonging to the family Therizinosauridae. Its fossils, a skull and some post-cranial fragments, were found in Mongolia....
 than to Ornithomimus
Ornithomimus

Ornithomimus is a genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America. Ornithomimus velox was named on the basis of a foot and partial hand from the Maastrichtian Denver Formation, but better material has since been found in Canada, including the Edmontonian-age Ornithomimus edmontonicus and an excelle...
. As the relationship of therizinosaurids to other theropods clarified and more members of the larger therizinosaur
Therizinosaur

Therizinosaurs are Theropoda dinosaurs belonging to the clade Therizinosauroidea. Therizinosaur fossils have been found in Early through Late Cretaceous deposits in Mongolia, the People's Republic of China and Western North America....
 group were found, a more restrictive definition has come to be preferred for the family-level name Therizinosauridae. Sereno himself, for example, re-defined the name in 2005 as the clade
Clade

A clade is a term used in modern alpha taxonomy, the scientific classification of living and fossil organisms, to describe a monophyletic group, defined as a group consisting of a single common ancestor and all its descendants.The term "monophyletic group" is used in this article in the conventional sense of "an a...
 containing Therizinosaurus cheloniformis
Therizinosaurus

Therizinosaurus is a genus of very large theropod dinosaur. Known from very incomplete remains, it is estimated to have grown up to 9.6 metre long and reach 3-6 metric ton in weight....
, Nothronychus mckinleyi
Nothronychus

Nothronychus is a genus of dinosaur classified in the group Therizinosauria, strange theropods with a toothless beak, a bird-like hip and four-toed feet, with all four toes facing forward....
, and Neimongosaurus yangi
Neimongosaurus

Neimongosaurus is a theropod dinosaur genus known from the Upper Cretaceous Iren Dabasu Formation of China, approximately 92 million years ago....
.

Taxonomy

  • Family Therizinosauridae
    Therizinosauridae

    Therizinosauridae is a Family of advanced herbivorous or omnivorous theropod dinosaurs. Therizinosaurid fossil remains have been recovered from mid-late Cretaceous Period deposits from Mongolia, China, and the United States....
    • Enigmosaurus
      Enigmosaurus

      Enigmosaurus was a herbivore bipedal dinosaur, in the family Therizinosauridae, occurring in the late Cretaceous Period , about 95 million years ago in what is now Mongolia, central Asia....
    • Erliansaurus
      Erliansaurus

      Erliansaurus was a genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous . It was a therizinosaurid theropod. Fossils of Erliansaurus were found in China....
    • Erlikosaurus
      Erlikosaurus

      Erlikosaurus is a genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous, belonging to the family Therizinosauridae. Its fossils, a skull and some post-cranial fragments, were found in Mongolia....
    • Neimongosaurus
      Neimongosaurus

      Neimongosaurus is a theropod dinosaur genus known from the Upper Cretaceous Iren Dabasu Formation of China, approximately 92 million years ago....
    • Nothronychus
      Nothronychus

      Nothronychus is a genus of dinosaur classified in the group Therizinosauria, strange theropods with a toothless beak, a bird-like hip and four-toed feet, with all four toes facing forward....
    • Segnosaurus
      Segnosaurus

      Segnosaurus is a genus of Theropoda dinosaur belonging to the family Therizinosauridae. The type species, S. galinensis, was described in 1979 by Dr....
    • Therizinosaurus
      Therizinosaurus

      Therizinosaurus is a genus of very large theropod dinosaur. Known from very incomplete remains, it is estimated to have grown up to 9.6 metre long and reach 3-6 metric ton in weight....
       (type
      Biological type

      In biology, a type is that which fixes a name to a taxon. Depending on the Nomenclature Codes which is applied to the organism in question, a type may be a specimen, culture, illustration, description or taxon....
      )


Phylogeny

The cladogram presented here follows a 2007 phylogenetic analysis by Phil Senter.