Huge claw belongs to newly-discovered species of sloth-like dinosaur

dinosaur claw reconstruction: Masoto Hattori dinosaur claw reconstruction: Masoto Hattori

"They call them the sloths of the Cretaceous period," said University of Calgary paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky. "Totally bizarre looking things."

In the interview with the Canadian Press, Zelenitsky was referring to Duonychus tsogtbaatari, a bizarre new species of dinosaur excavated in the Gobi desert.

"They walked on two legs, had these rotund bodies, a long neck and a small head and then long arms with big hands and usually three fingers and three decent-sized claws," she said.

Not only is the fossil a previously unidentified dinosaur, its included a claw with a 12-centimeter-long fingernail perfectly preserved. See below.

"The fingernail] usually doesn't preserve in a fossil record because it's usually not mineralized like bone so it just rots away quickly," Zelentisky said. "It evolved to just have two fingers and two claws. The claws on this one are about a foot long."

image: Kobayashi et al
image: Kobayashi et al
image: THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-University of Calgary
image: THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-University of Calgary

Previously:
• Dozens of dinosaur footprints discovered in high school's main office
• Cabazon dinosaur has a message for us: LOVE ONE ANOTHER