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Concept
Falcarius
Summary
Falcarius (meaning "sickle cutter") is a genus of primitive therizinosaur dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous period in what is now North America. Its remains were first collected in the Cedar Mountain Formation in 1999, with subsequent findings made during the 2000s. The genus is known from multiple specimens ranging from immature to fully-grown individuals.
Falcarius was a long bipedal herbivore with a small head and an elongated neck and tail. Unlike advanced therizinosaurs, Falcarius had a propubic pelvis and three-toed feet with a reduced hallux (first digit).
Falcarius is the basalmost known definitive therizinosaurian genus, and has been considered a transitional form connecting the typical theropod bodyplan to the unusual morphology of Therizinosauridae. Its description in 2005, following that of the basal therizinosauroid Beipiaosaurus from the Early Cretaceous of China in 1999, helped clarify the early evolution of the Therizinosauria and its relationships within the larger group of Theropoda.
The remains of Falcarius were first discovered in 1999 by commercial fossil collector Lawrence Walker at the Crystal Geyser Quarry site in Grand County. He informed paleontologist James I. Kirkland of the find, who with a team of the Utah Geological Survey from 2001 onwards began to uncover the bones that proved to be present in a two-acre (8,000-square-meter) area of Utah's Cedar Mountain Formation (Yellow Cat member). Falcarius thus lived in the Early Cretaceous period. Two extensive bone beds were discovered, including the remains of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of individuals of the new species. The minimum number of individual animals was in 2006 estimated at three hundred. In 2005 over two thousand specimens had been excavated, mostly consisting of disarticulated bones. These included the remains of juvenile animals. In 2008 a second site was reported, the Suarez Quarry, with mainly adult individuals, but of a perhaps slightly different type.
Official source
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