Subfamily
Valid Extinct

Parvicursorinae

(Karhu and Rautian 1996)

Alvarezsauridae is a family of small, long-legged dinosaurs. Although originally thought to represent the earliest known flightless birds, they are now thought to be an early diverging branch of maniraptoran theropods. Alvarezsaurids were highly specialized. They had tiny but stout forelimbs, with compact, bird-like hands. Their skeletons suggest that they had massive breast and arm muscles, possibly adapted for digging or tearing. They had long, tube-shaped snouts filled with tiny teeth. They have been interpreted as myrmecophagous, adapted to prey on colonial insects such as termites, with the short arms acting as effective digging instruments to break into nests. This has however been contested.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
19
Group
Dinosaures
Carnivore Ground dwelling, solitary Terrestrial
Parvicursorinae
click to enlarge
Mononykus © ★Kumiko★ · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
›
Theropoda Unranked clade
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Neotheropoda Unranked clade
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Averostra Unranked clade
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Tetanurae Unranked clade
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Coelurosauria Unranked clade
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Alvarezsauria Infraorder
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Alvarezsauroidea Unranked clade
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Alvarezsauridae Family
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Parvicursorinae Subfamily
Fossil sites 19 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇲🇳 Mongolia
15
🇨🇳 China
3
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan
1
Geological formations
Baruungoyot
5
Nemegt
5
Djadokhta
4
Wulansuhai
2
Bissekty
1
Majiacun
1
Javkhlant
1
Temporal distribution
Maastrichtian (72.2–66 Ma)
5
Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)
12
Coniacian (89.8–85.7 Ma)
1
Turonian (93.9–89.8 Ma)
1
Images 1
Bibliography
Original description
A. A. Karhu and A. S. Rautian. 1996. A new family of Maniraptora (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Paleontological Journal 30(5):583-592
Bibliography (18)
K. Kubo, Y. Kobayashi, and T. Chinzorig, K. Tsogtbaatar. 2023. A new alvarezsaurid dinosaur (Theropoda, Alvarezsauria) from the Upper Cretaceous Baruungoyot Formation of Mongolia provides insights for bird-like sleeping behavior in nonavian dinosaurs. PLoS ONE 18(11):e0293801:1-38 DOI ↗
A. O. Averianov and A. V. Lopatin. 2022. A new alvarezsaurid theropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Gobi Desert, Mongolia. Cretaceous Research 135:105168 DOI ↗
A. O. Averianov and H.-D. Sues. 2022. New material and diagnosis of a new taxon of alvarezsaurid (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 41(5):e2036174 DOI ↗
A. O. Averianov and A. V. Lopatin. 2021. The second taxon of alvarezsaurid theropod dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous Khulsan locality in Gobi Desert, Mongolia. Historical Biology DOI ↗
S. Lee, J.-Y. Park, and Y.-N. Lee, S.-H. Kim, J. Lü, R. Barsbold, K. Tsogtbaatar. 2019. A new alvarezsaurid dinosaur from the Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. Scientific Reports 9:15493:1-12 DOI ↗
D. W. E. Hone, J. N. Choiniere, and Q. Tan, X. Xu. 2013. An articulated pes from a small parvicursorine alvarezsauroid dinosaur from Inner Mongolia, China. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 58(3):453-458 DOI ↗
S. J. Nesbitt, J. A. Clarke, and A. H. Turner, M. A. Norell. 2011. A small alvarezsaurid from the Eastern Gobi Desert offers insight into evolutionary patterns in the Alvarezsauroidea. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31(1):144-153 DOI ↗
X. Xu, C. Sullivan, and M. Pittman, J. N. Choiniere, D. Hone, P. Upchurch, Q. Tan, D. Xiao, L. Tan, F. Han. 2011. A monodactyl nonavian dinosaur and the complex evolution of the alvarezsauroid hand. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108(6):2338-2342 DOI ↗
M. Watabe, S. Suzuki, and K. Tsogtbaatar, T. Tsubamoto, M. Saneyoshi. 2010. Report of the HMNS-MPC Joint Paleontological Expedition in 2006. Hayashibara Museum of Natural Sciences Research Bulletin 3:11-18
X. Xu, D.-Y. Wang, and C. Sullivan, D. W. E. Hone, F.-L. Han, R.-H. Yan, F.-M. Du. 2010. A basal parvicursorine (Theropoda: Alvarezsauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of China. Zootaxa 2413:1-19 DOI ↗
V. R. Alifanov and R. Barsbold. 2009. Ceratonykus oculatus gen. et sp. nov., a new dinosaur (? Theropoda, Alvarezsauria) from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Paleontological Journal 43(1):94-106 DOI ↗
L. M. Chiappe, S. Suzuki, and G. J. Dyke, M. Watabe, K. Tsogtbaatar, R. Barsbold. 2007. A new enantiornithine bird from the Late Cretaceous of the Gobi Desert. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 5(2):193-208 DOI ↗
M. Watabe and S. Suzuki. 2000. Report on the Japan–Mongolia Joint Paleontological Expedition to the Gobi desert, 1993. Hayashibara Museum of Natural Sciences Research Bulletin 1:17-29
L. M. Chiappe, M. A. Norell, and J. M. Clark. 1998. The skull of a relative of the stem-group bird Mononykus. Nature 392:275-278 DOI ↗
A. A. Karhu and A. S. Rautian. 1996. A new family of Maniraptora (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Paleontological Journal 30(5):583-592
A. Perle, L. M. Chiappe, and R. Barsbold, J. M. Clark, M. A. Norell. 1994. Skeletal morphology of Mononykus olecranus (Theropoda: Avialae) from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. American Museum Novitates 3105:1-29
A. Perle, M. A. Norell, and L. M. Chiappe, J. M. Clark. 1993. Correction: Flightless bird from the Cretaceous of Mongolia. Nature 363:188
A. Perle, M. A. Norell, and L. M. Chiappe, J. M. Clark. 1993. Flightless bird from the Cretaceous of Mongolia. Nature 362:623-626