Patagonykus

What it was like

Patagonykus was a large alvarezsaur, a theropod with short, stout arms and one big claw on each hand. It is known from part of a skeleton.

Its world

It lived about 94 to 86 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Argentina. It comes from the Portezuelo Formation, where it shared the land with Megaraptor, the giant titanosaur Futalognkosaurus and the feathered hunters Unenlagia and Neuquenraptor.

How it was found

Novas named Patagonykus in 1994. The type species is Patagonykus puertai. It helped show that alvarezsaurs were theropods, not birds as some had thought.