Deinocheirus is a genus of large ornithomimosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous around 70 million years ago. The genus name is Greek for “horrible hand”; the specific name comes from the unusual structure of the forelimbs. It is thought to have been omnivorous; its skull shape indicates a diet of plants.
About Deinocheirus in brief
Deinocheirus is a genus of large ornithomimosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous around 70 million years ago. In 1965, a pair of large arms, shoulder girdles, and a few other bones of a new dinosaur were first discovered in the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. No further remains were discovered for almost fifty years, and its nature remained a mystery. Two more complete specimens were described in 2014, which shed light on many aspects of the animal. Parts of these new specimens had been looted from Mongolia some years before, but were repatriated in 2014. The genus name is Greek for “horrible hand”; the specific name comes from the unusual structure of the forelimbs. It is thought to have been omnivorous; its skull shape indicates a diet of plants, fish scales were found in association with one specimen, and gastroliths were also present in the stomach region of the specimen. Its vertebrae had tall neural spines that formed a \”sail\” along its back. The skull was 1. 024 m long, with a wide bill and a deep lower jaw, similar to those of hadrosaurs. Its tail ended in pygostyle-like vertebraes, which indicate the presence of a fan of feathers. It had large, blunt claws on its three-fingered hands, which may have been used for digging and gathering plants.
Bite marks on Deinoche virus bones have been attributed to the tyrannosaurid Tarbosaurus. It was initially placed in the theropod group Carnosauria, but similarities with ornithomeosaurians were soon noted. After more complete remains were found, it was shown to be a primitive ornithomesaurian, most closely related to the smaller genera Garudimimus and Beishanlong. Members of this group were not adapted for speed, unlike other ornithmeimosaurs. It has since been re-catalogued as MPC-D18, but it has been recataloged as MP-D6-I6-6-1-I-6. The original specimen of the holotype was Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, who was part of a Polish group accompanied by Mongolian palaeontologist Rinchen Barsbold during the 1963–1965 Polish-Mongolian palAEontological expeditions. The crew spent July 9–11 excavating the specimen and loading it onto a vehicle. The specimen consisted of both fore limbs, excluding the claws of the right hand, centra of three dorsal vertebraE, five ribs, gastralia, and two ceratobranchialia. The generic name is derived from Greek de cheir, meaning “usual cheir” or “hand” or the size and strong claws of a forelimb. The specific name means “de cheir”, which means “unusual”
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This page is based on the article Deinocheirus published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
