Alxasaurus elesitaiensis ɑːlshuh-SORRUHS
"Alxa lizard"
- Length
- 3.8 m (12.5 ft)
- Period
- Early Cretaceous (113–100.5 Mya)
- Place
- Canada · China · Mongolia
- Food
- Herbivore
- Clade
- Dinosauria The clade containing all dinosaurs, terrestrial archosaurs with upright limbs.
Alxasaurus (; meaning “Alxa lizard”) is a genus of therizinosauroid theropod dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous (Albian age) Bayin-Gobi Formation of Inner Mongolia. It is known from five specimens, recovered from the Bayin-Gobi in 1988, as part of the China-Canada Dinosaur Project. During their preparation, palaeontologists Dong Zhiming and Dale Russell noted strong similarities to Segnosaurus. In 1993, they described Alxasaurus and named its type species, A. elesitaiensis. While therizinosaurs had previously been tentatively seen as late-surviving basal sauropodomorphs, the description of Alxasaurus lent credence to the idea that they were instead highly derived coelurosaurs.
What we know
- Named by Russell & Dong, 1993.
- Body length estimated at about 3.8 m.
- Fossils found in Canada and China.
What we guess
The reconstruction notes for Alxasaurus — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.