Late Cretaceous

Mongolia Nemegt Formation

Therizinosaurs

 

The Campanian thru Masstrictian.   

Updated 010915

Therizinosasurs (Segnosaurs) are strange therapods found in China (and now in North America, where they seem to have originated). Suggested to be vegetarians and resembling the extinct prosauropods of the early Mesozoic, they may have filled the same niche as the Giant Sloth.  

schliech Therizinosaurus

Therizinosaurus cheloniformis (Turtle-form Scythe-Lizard) is estimated to be around 36 feet long, though so far only the claws are really known.  It was first thought to be a giant turtle, later said to a surviving prosauropod, but now seen as a true theropod. This uncommon animal is also found in North America.
Safari Ltd Dinosaur of China Therizinosaurus Safari ltd Great Dinosaurs Therizinosaurus

 It may have been a browser; using the long claws to pull down tree branches like the grant sloth. What segnosaurs ate and how they lived is still unknown; ideas that they were fish eaters or fed on termites have been suggested, but don't seem very practical.  Reconstructions are usually based on fossils of a several relegated forms like Alxasaurus, Erlikosaurus and Segnosaurus, as finds are rare and incomplete.  Recent finds in China indicate they were feathered.

Battat Nanshiungosaurus

Nanshiungosaurus is larger than most other therizinosaurs.