Researchers highlighted that the gigantic claws that the dinosaurs had were not used for gutting prey but for slashing through vegetation.
It has been discovered in a new study that a bipedal dinosaur used to exist on and around the shores of Asia roughly between 66 to 145 million years ago and had no fingers but sharp knife-like claws.
The new species and genus of dinosaurs that existed during the cretaceous period were recently identified vis their fossilized remains recently discovered on the northern island of Hokkaido of Japan, according to Live Science. The researchers from Japan and the US illuminated that this fossil is the first one to be found in the marine sediments of Asia.
The unearthed fossils have been deemed as a newly discovered species which was named ‘Paralitherizinosaurus japonicus’ by the researchers. The researchers have deduced that the dinosaur predominantly belonged to a group of dinosaurs known as Therizinosaurs with their distinctive gestures being primarily herbivores, bipedal and three-toed dinosaurs.
The most astonishing feature of this newly discovered species was that it possessed sword-like claws and according to the researchers, the claws were used to slash through vegetation instead of disemboweling the prey. Scientists have compared the claws with those of Edward Scissorhands.
[This dinosaur] used its claws as foraging tools, rather than tools of aggression, to draw shrubs and trees closer to its mouth to eat. We believe it died on land and was washed out to sea.Co-author Anthony Fiorillo, Research professor, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas.
The fossil has a hook shape, discovered along with a partial vertebra and a partial wrist with a forefoot, and was first discovered in the fossil enriched Osoushinai Formation in Hokkaido, Japan, by a disparate team of researchers. It was completely surmounted by concretion which is a hardened mineral deposit-observed during its time of discovery and was previously considered to be a part of a group of dinosaurs named therizinosaur.
Due to a deficiency in the comparative data during the time of the fossil’s first discovery, the researchers could not conclude its identity and further research. However, with the recent developments, the researchers decided to revisit the initial developments of the fossils.
Mr. Fiorillo stated that the dinosaur was capable of growing up to 30 feet long(9 meters) and could weigh up to 3 tons.
