Therizinosaurus cheloniformis

In what would eventually become the Gobi Desert in Southwestern Mongolia, a creature with claws 3 times the length of the average human forearm. These massive scythe-like appendages were attached to a very odd looking member of the dinosaur family, a large theropod with an unusual gait, long neck, and a large potbelly built. This animal was most likely an herbivore, despite the vicious looking nature of it's forelimbs, but being a big animal with short legs it's likely that it developed big claws partly as a means to defend itself against big predators like Tarbosaurus bataar, a relative of T.rex that stalked Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous (70 million years ago). Therizinosaurus was first discovered in 1948 during a joint Soviet-Mongolian fossil hunting expedition, the fragmentary remains of gigantic claws were first described in detail by Evgeny Maleev in 1954 who theorized that they belonged to a giant turtle that used them to harvest seaweed. When later remains were found the picture was still not complete but it was clear that the animal was a dinosaur and science was able to place it in a grouping with more complete specimens of related creatures. Therizinosaurus is estimated to have measured about 33 feet in length and weighed in at around 5.5 tons. It had short back legs with 4 toes evolved to support a lot of weight, the inside toe being reduced to the form of a dewclaw in most other theropods. Its front limbs measured from 8.2 to 11.5 feet and it's claws averaged around 3.2 feet in length just on their own, giving it some of the largest claws in the fossil record, more than helping it live up to it's name as the "Scythe Lizard."

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