Therizinosaurus Facts for Kids
THAIR-ih-ZEEN-oh-SORE-us · its name means “scythe lizard”
A plant-eater with the longest claws of any known animal.
- 📏 size: not yet checked long
- ⚖️ weight: not yet checked
- 🕰️ the Cretaceous
- 🍽️ plants
Therizinosaurus had very, very long claws. It used them to pull down branches. It ate leaves.
Therizinosaurus had enormous curved claws on its hands, longer than any other known animal's. It walked on two legs, had a small head and a big belly, and probably used its claws to pull leafy branches close.
When its claws were first found, scientists thought they belonged to a giant turtle. Therizinosaurus was a cousin of meat-eating dinosaurs that had turned to eating plants, and it probably had feathers. Its name means scythe lizard, after the long curved blade farmers once used to cut grain.
Every dinosaur number is scientists’ best guess from bones, so each one says where it came from.
How big was Therizinosaurus?
Therizinosaurus: no checked size yet, so there is nothing to draw. We only draw what a source says.
Therizinosaurus in numbers
| Length (nose to tail) | no checked number yet |
|---|---|
| Height at the hips | no checked number yet |
| Weight | no checked number yet |
| When it lived | no checked number yet |
| What it ate | leaves |
| Fossils found in | Mongolia |
| What kind | a theropod: a two-legged dinosaur, the group birds came from |
Wow!
- Its claws were the longest of any known animal.
- Scientists first thought its claws came from a giant turtle.
- It was a plant-eater from a family of meat-eaters.
🦴 Therizinosaurus’s bones
Books about Therizinosaurus, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about Therizinosaurus for free.
Where was the land back then?
The continents were in different places when Therizinosaurus lived, in the Cretaceous. Open Planet Earth, pick Drifting continents, and slide back in time to see where the land was.
🦖 Ride a Therizino in Dino Dash
Its neighbours in time
Where these numbers come from
- Wikidata, Therizinosaurus (Q131264), checked 30 October 2026.
To read more: the Natural History Museum’s Dino Directory (see also, not copied).