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Beipiaosaurus ("Beipiao lizard") is one of the therizinosaurs, a very strange group of Cretaceous Period theropods. Therizinosaurs, the "scythe lizards", have very short, heavy feet, wide bellies, long necks, big claws, and small heads at the end of long necks. Their teeth are leaf-shaped, like those of the plant-eating dinosaurs, which makes them herbivorous members of the theropods.
Beipiaosaurus is known from one partial skeleton from the Yixian Formation in Northeastern China. The volcanic ash that formed the mud of this formation was so fine-grained that it preserved very small details of the animals buried in it.
Fossils show that Beipiaosaurus's body was covered with long, slender filaments. These filaments were a sort of protofeather, a body cover that eventually evolved into true feathers in birds and some other dinosaurs (such as Caudipteryx). The protofeathers of Beipiaosaurus might have been used for insulation or for display, or for both.
Name meaning Beipiao lizard/reptile Diet Herbivore Height 1 meter (3.3 feet) Length 2.2 meters (7.2 feet) Weight 45-91 kilograms (99-201 lbs) Birth type Egg Movie appearances Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (cut)
