New therizinosaurid dinosaur from the marine Osoushinai Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Japan) provides insight for function and evolution of therizinosaur claws.

ABSTRACT: The record of therizinosaurs is rich in Asian countries such as Mongolia and China. Fragmentary therizinosaur specimens have been reported from the Lower and Upper Cretaceous deposits in Japan. One of these specimens, from the lower Campanian Osoushinai Formation in Nakagawa Town of Hokkaido Prefecture, was previously identified as a maniraptoran theropod dinosaur, possibly therizinosaur, but its taxonomic status remained unresolved. This study re-examines the specimen and provides a more detailed description and attempts to resolve its taxonomic status. Our study demonstrates that it is a new taxon, Paralitherizinosaurus japonicus gen. et sp. nov., because it shows a unique combination of characters in the metacarpal I and unguals. Our phylogenetic analysis places this new taxon within an

SUBMITTER: Kobayashi Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9065154 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature