GLOBAL EYE
HISTORY Dinosaur ‘reaper’ with massive claws found in Japan
Showcasing the incredible world we live in
WORDS JENNIFER NALEWICKI
An artist’s rendition of Paralitherizinosaurus japonicus, the newfound dinosaur species
Millions of years ago, a bipedal dinosaur with knives for fingers stalked the shores of the Asian continent. But those Edward Scissorhands-like weapons were used for slashing vegetation rather than eviscerating animal prey. The dinosaur belonged to a group known as therizinosaurs – bipedal and primarily herbivorous three-toed dinosaurs that lived during the Cretaceous period about 145 million to 66 million years ago. Recently, researchers from Japan and the US described the youngest therizinosaur fossil ever found in Japan; that fossil also happens to be the first to be found in Asia in marine sediments.