Outline: a typical theropod
Jaculinykus
Type species Jaculinykus yaruui
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Alvarezsauridae
- Found in
- Mongolia
- Named by
- Kubo et al. 2023
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Jaculinykus
What it was like
Jaculinykus was a small alvarezsaur, a bird-like dinosaur with long legs and short, strong arms. It is known from a nearly complete skeleton. Its hands had one large finger and a much smaller second finger.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Mongolia. Its bones come from the Baruungoyot Formation, a dry land shared with the armored Tarchia and Saichania and the small feathered Avimimus.
How it was found
Kubo and colleagues named it in 2023. The type species is Jaculinykus yaruui. Its name compares it to a small jumping rodent.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Alvarezsauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: K. Kubo, Y. Kobayashi, and T. Chinzorig, K. Tsogtbaatar. 2023. A new alvarezsaurid dinosaur (Theropoda, Alvarezsauria) from the Upper Cretaceous Baruungoyot Formation of Mongolia provides insights for bird-like sleeping behavior in nonavian dinosaurs. PLoS ONE 18(11):e0293801:1-38