Fossil Reveals A New Two-Clawed Dinosaur Species

Photo: Masato Hattori via Reuters

India-West News Desk

NEW DELHI – Fossils unearthed during the construction of a water pipeline in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert have uncovered a bizarre dinosaur with a fearsome pair of curved claws. The newly identified species, Duonychus tsogtbaatari, belonged to the therizinosaurs—an unusual group of plant-eating theropods—but stood apart from its relatives due to its two-fingered hands, a trait it shared with the infamous Tyrannosaurus rex.

Measuring about 10 feet long and weighing roughly 575 pounds, Duonychus lived 90 to 95 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. Unlike other therizinosaurs, which typically had three-fingered hands, Duonychus featured only two, each tipped with a menacing, foot-long claw. One of the fossils remarkably retained its keratin sheath, revealing that the claw was more than 40% longer than the underlying bone.

While therizinosaurs were plant-eaters, their enormous claws may have served multiple functions, including pulling down branches for feeding. The discovery of Duonychus adds to the growing list of theropod dinosaurs that independently evolved two-fingered hands, a striking parallel to T. rex, whose undersized yet powerful arms remain one of paleontology’s enduring mysteries.