Information About

Shuvuuia




  Fossil Range Cretaceous
  Regnum Animal ia
  Phylum Chordata
  Classis Sauropsida
  Ordo Saurischia
  Familia Alvarezsauridae
  Genus '''''Shuvuuia'''''
  Species '''''S deserti'''''
  Binomial ''Shuvuuia deserti''
  Binomial Authority Chiappe et al, 1998


''Shuvuuia'' was a 3-foot carnivorous Feather ed Dinosaur which belonged to the family Alvarezsauridae . Specimens were found in Mongolia in the 1920s and 1990s , and electron microscopes have revealed a covering of small, down-like feathers on their bodies. It would have originally lived in the Cretaceous period, 85–75 million years ago. It was named in 1998 after the Mongolian word for bird, "shuvuu." It was about 0.9 m (3 ft) long, about 30 cm (1 ft) tall and had a mass of around 2.5 kg (5.5 lb).

A strange physical feature of ''Shuvuuia'' is the fact that, instead of fingers, it had a single claw on each hand, bearing a resemblance to a scythe. This claws may have been used to catch prey, ward away small predators (such as Velociraptor ), or maybe even for mating displays.