Bonapartenykus Bonapartenykus
"José F. Bonaparte"
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Bonapartenykus 3.3 m (10.8 ft) long
2 people holding hands
- Length
- 3.3 m (10.8 ft)
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (100–66 Mya)
- Place
- Argentina
- Food
- Herbivore
- Clade
- Dinosauria
Bonapartenykus (meaning “José F. Bonaparte’s claw”) is an extinct genus of alvarezsauroid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian) of what is now the Allen Formation of the Río Negro Province, Argentina. The genus contains a single species, Bonapartenykus ultimus, known from a partially articulated, incomplete skeleton that was found in close association to two incomplete eggs and several clusters of eggshells belonging to the oogenus Arriagadoolithus. Bonapartenykus was named in 2012. It has an estimated length of 2.5 – 3.3 m and weight of 43 – 72 kg, making it the largest member of the clade Alvarezsauroidea. Additional skeletons referrable to this genus have subsequently been described.
What we know
- Named by Agnolin et al. 2012.
- Body length estimated at about 3.3 m.
- Fossils found in Argentina.