Alxasaurus elesitaiensis ɑːlshuh-SORRUHS

"Alxa lizard"

You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Alxasaurus 3.8 m (12.5 ft) long
3 people holding hands
Length
3.8 m (12.5 ft)
Period
Early Cretaceous (113–100.5 Mya)
Place
Canada · China · Mongolia
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Dinosauria

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.