Outline: a typical theropod
Machairasaurus
"short scimitar lizard"
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Oviraptoridae
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Longrich et al. 2010
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Machairasaurus
What it was like
Machairasaurus was a small oviraptorid, a feathered theropod with a toothless beak. It is known from part of a skeleton. Its hand claws were short and curved.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now China. It comes from the Bayan Mandahu Formation, a desert land shared with Velociraptor, Protoceratops and the armored Pinacosaurus.
How it was found
Longrich and colleagues named Machairasaurus in 2010.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Oviraptoridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: N. R. Longrich, P. J. Currie, and Z.-M. Dong. 2010. A new oviraptorid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous of Bayan Mandahu, Inner Mongolia. Palaeontology 53(5):945-960