Researchers have found remains of perhaps the most unusual dinosaur known, a sporadically feathered best with no teeth that may have resembled a cross between Jar Jar Binks and Barney.
Scientists found the fossilized bones of two large, powerful forelimbs of an unknown dinosaur in Mongolia some 50 years ago and concluded that the 8-foot-long “arms” were from a fearsome creature because of the large, intimidating claws at the ends of the digits. However, now that scientists have the rest of this dinosaurs bones, the picture of the critter has been revised. It appears to have been more awkward and hapless-looking than fearsome.
The dinosaur in questions is Deinocheirus mirificus, which is Latin for “terrible hands that look peculiar.” But this dinosaur probably lumbered about on its hind legs, not unlike Jar Jar Binks of Star Wars fame, with a touch of Barney the purple TV dinosaur mixed in. It measured 16 feet tall and 36 feet long, weighed approximately seven tons, and had patches of feathers on certain parts of its body but not all over. Round out the picture with a toothless duckbill and a hump-like sail on its back, and Deinocheirus contends for the oddest dinosaur found yet.
“Deinocheirus turned out to be one the weirdest dinosaurs beyond our imagination,” study lead author Yuong-Nam Lee, director of the Geological Museum in Daejeon, South Korea, said in a written statement.
With only the arms to go by, researchers imagined “a creature that would strike terror in people,” explained University of Maryland dinosaur expert Thomas Holtz Jr, who was not involved in the study. “Now it’s a creature that would strike bemusement, amazement.”
Deinocheirus likely ate aquatic plants like a giant vacuum cleaner with its beak and massive tongue. The complete report on this awkward-looking slow-mover was published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
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