The Dinosaur - Therizinosaurus

Therizinosaurus is definitely one weird dinosaur. In fact, it is so unusual it took scientists many years to decide what exactly it was!

With a long neck, pot belly, short tail, four-toed feet, tiny head, beaky mouth, 39-inch claws, and possibly feathers, it seems like a combination of half a dozen different dinosaur species.

When all the fossils were put together paleontologists were faced with a creature that was shaping up to be the strangest-looking dinosaur ever to walk the earth!

ts most distinctive feature was gigantic claws on its front limbs – they were nearly three feet long! Scientists believe this herbivore probably used these lethal-looking claws to pull down branches and strip bark and leaves shoving them into its mouth.

As the owner of the most enormous claws ever known, Therizinosaurus would have been a risky target for any predator, even the 40-foot Tarbosaurus, a relative of Tyrannosaurus Rex that lived in Mongolia at the same time as Therizinosaurus.

When its fossils were first discovered in 1948 in the Gobi desert in Mongolia scientists didn't even believe it was a dinosaur at all. Therizinosaurus' remains, which were little more than a giant clawed hand and arm, were at first thought to belong to a giant turtle!

That's why it was given its name Therizinosaurus Cheloniformis which means Turtle-Form Scythe Lizard. How's that for weird!