Labels:text | font | paper | document OCR: A heavy-bodied dinosaur as weighty as an Asian elephant and longer than the largest living crocodile, Therizinosaurus ("scythe lizard") was probably the weirdest-looking dinosaur of all. Scientists believe this creature had a small, narrow head, with a toothless beak and small cheek teeth; a long, straight neck; a broad back and bulky belly; and a short tail. The muscular arms' three-fingered hands bore immensely long, scythelike claws, and each strong leg's short, broad foot had four- forward facing toes. CLAWED HANDS This extraordinary theropod ("beast-footed" dinosaur) shared some features with the prosauropods ("before the lizard-footed" dinosaurs) and other features with the ornithischians ("bird-hipped" dinosaurs). Few dinosaurs have posed greater puzzles to scientists in their attempt to build up a picture of a creature's way of life. One possibility is that it might have used its strong arms and hands, equipped with very long, sharp claws, to rake open termites' nests to feed on the insects. The great anteater, which lives in South America today, wields its claws in this way. Powerful arms and talons could also have served as defensive weapons. TOOTHLESS BEAK Another possibility is that Therizinosaurus swam and hunted fishes, as some scientists have suggested for its likely relative Segnosaurus ("slow lizard"). Yet such creatures' toothless beaks seem ill-designed for gripping slippery water animals. Their beaks and ridged teeth both seem more suited to nipping off leaves and biting them into smaller pieces. Then, too, the way their hip bones were designed hints that the therizinosaurs ate leaves: their backward- sloping pubic bones would have made room for the large gut needed to digest large quantities of nutritionally low-grade vegetation. Indeed, most scientists now think that Therizinosaurus must have been a plant- eating theropod, an oddity as unlikely as a herbivorous tiger. UNUSUAL THEROPOD Therizinosaurus seems to have been built much like those strange extinct mammals the chalicotheres, also called clawed horses. Probably it also matched their way of life. Sitting on its hindlimbs it would have craned its long neck to feed on leafy branches, using its clawed fingers to push fronds to its mouth. Like ordinary theropods, Therizinosaurus could walk on its hindlimbs, but at times it went upon all fours: resting and walking on its knuckles the way gorillas do. This sluggish giant's top speed was no more than a brisk walk or a slow run.
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