Outline: a typical theropod
Parvicursor
"small runner"
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Alvarezsauridae
- Found in
- Mongolia
- Named by
- Karhu and Rautian 1996
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Parvicursor
What it was like
Parvicursor was one of the smallest known dinosaurs, a tiny alvarezsaur with long, slender legs built for running. Its single skeleton is incomplete, and some scientists think it may be a young animal.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Mongolia. It comes from the Baruungoyot Formation, a dry land of dunes shared with the armored Saichania and Tarchia and the small bird-like Avimimus.
How it was found
Karhu and Rautian named Parvicursor in 1996.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Alvarezsauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: A. A. Karhu and A. S. Rautian. 1996. A new family of Maniraptora (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Paleontological Journal 30(5):583-592