Falcarius

What it was like

Falcarius was one of the earliest known therizinosaurs, the strange, long-clawed dinosaurs that came from meat-eating ancestors but mostly ate plants. It had a small head, a long neck and tail, and curved claws on its hands.

Its teeth were small and leaf-shaped, suited to plants, so it may have eaten plants and small animals. It shows how this group made the change from hunting to plant eating.

Its world

It lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now Utah, in the United States. Its bones come from the Cedar Mountain Formation, where it shared the land with the giant raptor Utahraptor and the armored Gastonia.

How it was found

Kirkland and colleagues named Falcarius in 2005. A bone bed in Utah holds the remains of many individuals, from young to fully grown.