Question 1

How do you say Erlikosaurus?

Accepted Answer

Erlikosaurus is pronounced er-LIK-oh-sore-us. Break it into four parts: er, then LIK with the stress, then oh, then sore-us. The tricky part is that middle syllable, LIK, which you say like the word lick but with emphasis. Say it a few times fast and it starts to feel natural: er-LIK-oh-sore-us.

Question 2

What does Erlikosaurus mean?

Accepted Answer

Erlikosaurus means Erlik's lizard. Erlik is the god of death and ruler of the underworld in Mongolian and Turkic mythology. The scientists who named this dinosaur in 1980 were Mongolian, so they honored their own cultural mythology with this name. The saurus part just means lizard in Ancient Greek, the standard ending for most dinosaur names.

Question 3

When did Erlikosaurus live?

Accepted Answer

Erlikosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous period, roughly 96 to 89 million years ago. That puts it in the Cenomanian and Turonian stages of the Cretaceous. For context, the famous T. rex lived around 66 million years ago, so Erlikosaurus was prowling Mongolia about 25 million years before T. rex even existed.

Question 4

Where was Erlikosaurus found?

Accepted Answer

Erlikosaurus fossils were found in Mongolia, specifically in a rock unit called the Bayan Shireh Formation. This formation spans parts of the Gobi Desert region and has produced many important dinosaur fossils. The original specimen was collected in 1972 during a joint Mongolian-Soviet scientific expedition to the area.

Question 5

What did Erlikosaurus eat?

Accepted Answer

Erlikosaurus was a herbivore, meaning it ate plants. This surprises a lot of people because therizinosaurs look like fierce predators. The skull of Erlikosaurus clearly shows a toothless beak at the front of its jaws and leaf-shaped teeth further back, both features suited to stripping and chewing vegetation. Scientists think it used its giant curved claws to hook branches and pull them down to eat.

Question 6

How big was Erlikosaurus?

Accepted Answer

Erlikosaurus was about 16 feet long, which is roughly the length of a minivan, and weighed around 440 pounds. It walked on two legs and had a long neck, so it would have stood taller than a full-grown adult human at the hips. Compared to its giant cousin Therizinosaurus, which could reach 30 feet long, Erlikosaurus was a medium-sized member of the family.

Question 7

Was Erlikosaurus dangerous?

Accepted Answer

Erlikosaurus was not a predator, so it was not hunting other animals. However, those enormous curved claws were still real weapons if needed for defense. A 440-pound animal with long slashing claws and strong arms would be very capable of seriously injuring or killing a predator that got too close. Think of how dangerous a defensive kick or swipe from a large modern animal like an ostrich or bear can be.

Question 8

Did Erlikosaurus have feathers?

Accepted Answer

Erlikosaurus probably had feathers, though no feathers have been directly preserved with its fossils. We know this because close relatives of Erlikosaurus, including Beipiaosaurus from China, have been found with clear feather impressions preserved in rock. Since Erlikosaurus sits in the same family tree, paleontologists are confident it was also feathered. It likely had a coat of downy body feathers, making it look quite unlike the scaly dinosaurs of older movies.

Question 9

Who discovered Erlikosaurus?

Accepted Answer

The fossil was collected in 1972 during a Mongolian-Soviet paleontological expedition, and it was formally described and named in 1980 by two Mongolian paleontologists named Altangerel Perle and Rinchen Barsbold. Barsbold is one of the most famous dinosaur scientists in Mongolian history, having named dozens of new species. The species name andrewsi was chosen to honor Roy Chapman Andrews, the legendary American explorer who pioneered fossil hunting in Mongolia in the 1920s.

Question 10

Why does Erlikosaurus have such a good skull?

Accepted Answer

Erlikosaurus is famous among paleontologists specifically because its skull is the most complete therizinosaur skull ever found. Most therizinosaur fossils consist of fragmentary bones, so having a nearly complete skull is extremely rare and valuable. This skull has allowed scientists to understand the facial anatomy, tooth arrangement, and likely sensory abilities of these strange dinosaurs far better than any other specimen in the group could provide.

Question 11

Is Erlikosaurus related to T. rex?

Accepted Answer

Erlikosaurus and T. rex are both theropod dinosaurs, so they share a very broad common ancestor, but they are not closely related. Therizinosaurs like Erlikosaurus belong to a completely different branch of the theropod family tree from tyrannosaurs. In fact, the therizinosaur lineage is thought to be more closely related to birds and to small feathered dinosaurs like Velociraptor than it is to the giant tyrannosaurs.

Question 12

What other dinosaurs lived at the same time as Erlikosaurus?

Accepted Answer

Erlikosaurus shared the Bayan Shireh Formation of Mongolia with several other interesting dinosaurs. These included Segnosaurus, another therizinosaur, the ankylosaur Talarurus, and the early tyrannosaur relative Alectrosaurus. The formation dates to roughly 96 to 89 million years ago, and it paints a picture of a rich Central Asian ecosystem full of diverse herbivores and carnivores living together in a seasonally dry landscape.

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