Therizinosaurus

Therizinosaurus was a large plant-eating dinosaur that walked on two legs.

It had enormous claws on each of its three-fingered hands. These claws are thought to be the longest of any land animal ever.

This dinosaur is only known from some arm, leg and rib bones. This means full body reconstructions are mostly guesswork based on closely related dinosaurs.

Therizinosaurus means ‘scythe lizard’. The dinosaur’s huge claws look like scythes – farming tools with long blades.

At 50 centimetres long, Therizinosaurus’s hand claws were enormous. Some experts think it might have used them to pull vegetation towards itself, similar to how modern anteaters do.

We don’t know if its huge claws were strong enough to be used as weapons against other dinosaurs. They might have been mostly useful as a threat display to make other creatures think twice before attacking.

The theropod dinosaurs were mostly two-legged meat-eaters, such as Tyrannosaurusopens in a new window, Allosaurusopens in a new window and Velociraptoropens in a new window.

For a long time, scientists weren’t sure whether to consider Therizinosaurus a theropod. While it walked on two legs, it didn’t eat meat and had very strange proportions.

With its long neck and heavy body, some experts thought it might be related to the sauropods – four-legged giants that include Diplodocusopens in a new window and Brachiosaurusopens in a new window.

Then, fossil hunters began to find more of Therizinosaurus’s relatives – similar but smaller dinosaurs such as Alxasaurus, Erlikosaurusopens in a new window and Beipiaosaurusopens in a new window.

By studying these new finds, scientists were able to work out that Therizinosaurus and its relatives must all be part of the theropod evolutionary line.

The movie Jurassic World Dominion features a blind Therizinosaurus.

There’s no reason to think that all Therizinosaurus, or any other type of dinosaur, were normally blind.

Animals can go blind during their lifetime for several different reasons, including eye injuries, diseases or brain conditions.

Therizinosaurus was a plant-eater, but that doesn’t mean it was docile. Lots of modern herbivores, such as elephants and rhinos, can be very dangerous.

But fossil bones can’t tell us much about the temperament of a long-extinct dinosaur, so until we get more information, we just can’t say for sure.