Deinocheirus is regarded as one of the most peculiar species of dinosaur. The true identity of this bizarre creature was a mystery for over four decades. However, at 36 ft long, Deinocheirus is now known to be the largest of the so-called ‘ostrich dinosaurs’. It lived in Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous, 70 million years ago.
History
When a pair of mysterious, giant arms were discovered in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in 1965, they raised more questions than they answered. Polish palaeontologists described these three-clawed hands in 1970 and gave them the name Deinocheirus, which aptly means ‘terrible hand’. This dino was placed in a brand new family, Deinocheiridae, because its arms were so different from those of all other known dinosaurs.
The discovery of more skeletons in 2009 provided the missing data needed to finally reconstruct Deinocheirusin its entirety. This new material was described in 2014 and revealed an even more unusual dinosaur than anyone had expected! In addition to its famous arms, it had several other unusual features, including a humped back and a stretched out head that ended in a broad bill. Lastly, Deinocheirus possessed a fused structure at the tip of its tail that consisted of several bones, much like the ‘pygostyle’ in modern birds, which supports tail feathers.