A theropod — the same group as T. rex — that gave up hunting for browsing treetops, keeping only its ancestors' claws, grown to a size no other animal has matched. Feathered, pot-bellied and slow-moving, it must have looked as strange to other dinosaurs as it does to us.
Length9 m
Height5 m
Weight3,000 kg
Top speed25 km/h
Field notes
- Its hand claws reached up to 70 cm along the curve — the longest of any known animal.
- First described in 1954 from claws alone, initially mistaken for a giant turtle-like reptile.
- Likely used its claws for hooking branches to feed, not for fighting.