Elbowed One-Claw

Mononykus olecranus
(Perle, Norrell, Chiappe & Clark, 1993)

    Mononykus olecranus is a small dinosaur of the Cretaceous Gobi, in Asia.  Although its origins are uncertain, M olecranus seems to be a form of flightless bird that has, over the course of its evolution, become very much like another group of Asian dinosaurs, the ornithomimosaurs .

    M. olecranus's most obvious distinguishing features are its incredible arms.  It lacks the three-clawed hands of most dinosaurs and possesses, in their place, a pair of stubby, powerfully muscled claws.  The olecron processes (elbows) of these arms are greatly enlarged, anchoring massive muscles that give M. olecranus a powerful grip despite the small size of the arms.  The actual use of these strange appendages is unknown, and as a result, the ecological niche that M. olecranus fills is rather vague.

Thanks to T. Michael Keesey for for his co-authorship of this painting, Toby White for posting this picture as an illustraition to his Alzvarasaur essay , Peter Buchholz for helping me with the latin translation of the name, and Ray Stanford, of cource.
 
Other sites containing pertinent information:
© Daniel Bensen 2000
Back to OPUS: Dinosaur
This image modified by Adobe Photoshop.