Adasaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
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Genus: | Adasaurus
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†Adasaurus mongoliensis |
Adasaurus is a Dromaeosaur theropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous. It lived in what is now Central Asia. It was a small carnivore, with a large, sickle-shaped claw on the second toe of each hind foot. An adult was probably about 6.2 feet (2 meters) long.[1]
Two specimens of Adasaurus have been found, both from the Gobi Desert of southern Mongolia. One is an incomplete skeleton with partial skull, including the vertebral column except the back of the tail, all three bones of the pelvis, the shoulder girdle and the hindlimbs. The second specimen includes the back end of another skeleton, including the hindlimbs. Both specimens are in the collection of the Mongolian Geological Institute in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
The age of the strata, like most of Mongolia's later Cretaceous sediments, is not known for certain. It is thought to be somewhere between 74 and 65 million years ago. Other dinosaurs found in this formation include Tarbosaurus, Anserimimus, and Saurolophus.