Jurassic June: Therizinosaurus
Name: Therizinosaurus (Ther-riz-zino-sawr-us)
Which means: "Scythe lizard"
Therizinosaurus was a bipedal theropod dinosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous Period, roughly 70 million years ago. It stood about 6 meters in height and grew to be 30-40 feet in length.
Therizinosaurus and members of its family were certainly an oddball breed of dinosaurs. They're close cousins to many different carnivorous dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor yet they evolved into developing a diet for vegetation instead of meat. The most distinguishing features of this large herbivore are the set of 50 centimeter long claws on its forelimbs. What it may have used these claws for is up for debate. It likely used them to pull or swipe at vegetation that may have been out of reach of its long neck, though it is possible it may have used them as defense against predators. It was likely to have been feathered, like most of its theropod family members.
Therizinosaurus will make its world debut on the big screen for the first time in the new film Jurassic World Dominion.