Outline: a typical theropod
Linhenykus
"Linhe claw"
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Alvarezsauridae
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Xu et al. 2011
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Linhenykus
What it was like
Linhenykus was a tiny, bird-like alvarezsaur. Its short, strong arms ended in a single large claw, making it the only dinosaur known with just one finger on each hand. It may have used the claw to break into insect nests.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now China. Its bones come from the Wulansuhai Formation, a dry land shared with Protoceratops, the armored Pinacosaurus and the raptor Linheraptor.
How it was found
Xu and colleagues named it in 2011. It is named after a nearby city.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Alvarezsauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: X. Xu, C. Sullivan, and M. Pittman, J. N. Choiniere, D. Hone, P. Upchurch, Q. Tan, D. Xiao, L. Tan, F. Han. 2011. A monodactyl nonavian dinosaur and the complex evolution of the alvarezsauroid hand. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108(6):2338-2342