Outline: a typical theropod
Alvarezsaurus
- Lived
- 86 to 84 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Length
- about 2 m (7 ft)
- Group
- Theropods, Alvarezsauridae
- Found in
- Argentina
- Named by
- Bonaparte 1991
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical theropod shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Alvarezsaurus
What it was like
Alvarezsaurus was a small, lightly built theropod about 2 meters (7 feet) long, with long legs and a long tail. It gives its name to the alvarezsaurs, a group known for short, strong arms with one big claw, likely used to break open insect nests. Its own arms are poorly known.
Its world
It lived about 86 to 84 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Argentina. It comes from the Bajo de la Carpa Formation, where it shared the land with the small theropod Velocisaurus, the megaraptor Tratayenia and the titanosaurs Neuquensaurus and Yeneen.
How it was found
Bonaparte named Alvarezsaurus in 1991, after a historian from the region where it was found.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Alvarezsauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: J. F. Bonaparte. 1991. Los vertebrados fósiles de la Formación Rio Colorado, de la Ciudad de Neuquén y Cercanías, Cretácico Superior, Argentina [The vertebrate fossils of the Rio Colorado Formation, from the city of Neuquén and surrounding areas, Upper Cretaceous, Argentina]. Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia" e Instituto Nacional de Investigación de las Ciencias Naturales: Paleontología 4(3):17-123