Genus
Valid Extinct

Deinocheirus

Kielan-Jaworowska 1969

Deinocheirus is a genus of large ornithomimosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous around 70 million years ago. In 1965, a pair of large arms, shoulder girdles, and a few other bones of a new dinosaur were first discovered in the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. In 1970, this specimen became the holotype of the only species within the genus, Deinocheirus mirificus; the genus name is Greek for "horrible hand". No further remains were discovered for almost fifty years, and its nature remained a mystery. Two more complete specimens were described in 2014, which shed light on many aspects of the animal. Parts of these new specimens had been looted from Mongolia some years before, but were repatriated in 2014.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
5
Group
Dinosaures
Herbivore, omnivore Ground dwelling, gregarious Terrestrial
Deinocheirus
click to enlarge
Dinosaur skeleton. © ケラトプスユウタ · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia
Deinocheirus
Deinocheirus
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
›
Theropoda Unranked clade
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Ornithomimosauria Unranked clade
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Deinocheiridae Family
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Deinocheirus Genus
Measurements
Height
4,4 m ⓘ
Length
12 m ⓘ
Deinocheirus mirificus
11 m ⓘ
Mass
7 000 kg ⓘ
Deinocheirus mirificus
6 400 kg ⓘ
Fossil sites 5 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇲🇳 Mongolia
5
Geological formations
Nemegt
4
Temporal distribution
Maastrichtian (72.2–66 Ma)
4
Turonian (93.9–89.8 Ma)
1
Species (1)
Deinocheirus mirificus 72 Ma
Images 6
Bibliography
Original description
Z. Kielan-Jaworowska. 1969. Fossils from the Gobi desert. Science Journal 5(1):32-38
Bibliography (4)
Y. Lee, L. L. Jacobs, and P. J. Currie, R. Barsbold. 2023. Narrative of the Korea-Mongolian International Dinosaur expeditions (KID) 2006–2010 with scientific results. Windows into Sauropsid and Synapsid Evolution: Essays in Honor of Louis L. Jacobs
Y.-N. Lee, R. Barsbold, and P. J. Currie, Y. Kobayashi, H.-J. Lee, P. Godefroit, F. Escuillié, T. Chinzorig. 2014. Resolving the long-standing enigmas of a giant ornithomimosaur Deinocheirus mirificus. Nature 515(7526):257-260 DOI ↗
S. Suzuki, M. Watabe, and K. Tsogtbaatar. 2010. Report of the HMNS-MPC Joint Paleontological Expedition in 2004. Hayashibara Museum of Natural Sciences Research Bulletin 3:1-9
Z. Kielan-Jaworowska. 1969. Fossils from the Gobi desert. Science Journal 5(1):32-38