Dinosaurs A to Z
Alvarezsauridae

Ceratonykus

"horned claw"

Generic theropod body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Ceratonykus 60 cm (2 ft) long
about knee-high to you
generic theropod body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Ceratonykus
Length
60 cm (2 ft)
Period
Late Cretaceous (100–66 Mya)
Place
Mongolia
Food
Carnivore
Clade
Alvarezsauridae
Ceratonykus reconstruction by Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com)
Reconstruction · Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com) (CC-BY)

Ceratonykus (meaning “horned claw”) is a monospecific genus of alvarezsaurid dinosaur from Mongolia that lived during the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) in what is now the Barun Goyot Formation. The type and only species, Ceratonykus oculatus, is known from a fragmentary skeleton, including an incomplete skull, of an adult individual. It was named and described in 2009 by Vladimir Alifanov and Rinchen Barsbold. Its describers questioned the traditional placement of alvarezsaurs in Theropoda, instead suggesting they were ornithischians, but this has not been accepted since. Ceratonykus has an estimated length of 75 cm and weight of 760 g. It has been considered as a possible junior synonym of Parvicursor.

What we know

  • Named by Alifanov & Barsbold, 2009.
  • Body length estimated at about 0.6 m.
  • Fossils found in Mongolia.

What we guess

The reconstruction notes for Ceratonykus — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.