Monstrous talons.(GRAPH IT/FOSSILS)(Brief article).

Scientists have uncovered the bones of a dinosaur with three scary 22 centimeter (9 inch)-long claws on each hand. They identified the 93-million-year-old fossil (hardened traces of an ancient organism) as a therizinosaur, which means "reaper lizard." Even though it belonged to the same group of dinosaurs as the meat-eating Tyrannosaurus rex, this beast was a vegetarian.

Why the plant-eater had such crazy claws remains a mystery. The dine had other oddities, including a birdlike beak, a long neck, a potbelly, stumpy legs, and a short tail. "It's a very strange looking dinosaur," admits Lindsay Zanno, a paleontologist at the Field Museum in Chicago.

HEIGHT COMPARISON

Nothronychus graffami would have towered over humans. How much taller was the dino than the person shown in the graph?

Source Citation:Binns, Corey. "Monstrous talons.(GRAPH IT/FOSSILS)(Brief article)." Science World 66.3 (Oct 5, 2009): 6(1). Academic OneFile. Gale. BROWARD COUNTY LIBRARY. 15 Oct. 2009
.