The Mystery Of The Mashed-Up Dinosaurs

How the therizinosaurs lived and evolved ended up being just as weird as their mixed-up anatomy.

*****
*****

Produced by Complexly for PBS Digital Studios

Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible:
Hunter Korsmo, Ph.D. Biochemistry, Syrupeclipse, Melanie Truscott, Michael Roy, John H. Austin, Jr., Kate Huhmann, Alex Hackman, Amanda Ward, Stephen Patterson, Karen Farrell, Trevor Long, daniel blankstein, Roberto Adrian Ramirez Flores, Jason Rostoker, Jonathan Rust, Mary Tevington, Bart & Elke van Iersel - De Jong, William Craig II, Irene Wood, Derek Helling, WilCatRhClPPh33, Mark Talbott-Williams, Nomi Alchin, Duane Westhoff, Hillary Ryde-Collins, Yu Mei, Jayme Coyle, Albert Folsom, Oscar Amoros Huguet, Patrick Wells, Dan Caffee, Stephanie Tan, Nick Ryhajlo, Sean Dennis.

Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet?

[arcosprey]

The possibility of more lineages of dinosaurs is fascinating, but at the same time obvious given only 1% of all life has fossilized.

[aidanbutler]

Therizinosaurs are a perfect example of how nature can be weirder than science fiction.

[micahbush]

I'm kind of reminded of pandas, bears that became primarily herbivorous in order to fill a niche with little competition.

[godzillagamingboy]

Therizinosaurus is one of the most fascinating dinosaurs I’ve ever seen tbh

[PaleosTime]

I just love how therizinosaurs and deinocheirus both trended towards herbivory and obscenely large claws/hands. Plus they were contemporaries!
Another fantastic video.

[devinsmith]

Speaking of which, a video discussing the evolutionary origins of the sauropods and how they descend from more theropod looking dinos would be interesting.

[BearUmbra]

An Eons episode about my favorite Dinosaur, LETS GO!!

[davidsmith]

It's so interesting that evolution has converged twice on giant, slow, big-clawed herbivores more than once (therizinosaurs and giant ground sloths). I wonder if they'll find a third example of it?

[melvinshine]

I remember having dinosaur books depicting therizinosaurs as partially quadrupedal and questioned if they were some sort of link between prosauropods and theropods. I love therizinosaurs and all their weirdness. The first depiction I can ever remember of them in media was Nothronychus in When Dinosaurs Roamed America, where it was described as looking like "a half plucked turkey that walked like a pot bellied bear".

[ThePixiixiq]

My sisters first paper in school was a story set in the near future and was about how the penguins had forgotten to pay the electric bill which resulted in the dinosaurs thawing roaming the earth. The end was a scene in which the Danish prime minister (of the mid 90s) was 90 years old and sitting in a wheelchair in a nursing home being helped by a nurse with bright green hair. He died from choking on his toothbrush when a T-rex showed up. The end <3

[marcelogaea]

Thank you, Eons. Seriously, anything PBS has unfailingly amazed since inception.

[akumaking]

“How confusing should this Dino be?”
“Yes”

[WAMTAT]

I love how we're learning that dinos are a lot weirder than we first thought

[RavinRay]

I remember in the dinosaur book I bought in the early 90's, _Dinosaurs: A Global View_ by the husband and wife team of (the late) Stephen and Sylvia Czerkas, _Axlasaurus_ had not yet been discovered, and they classified _Therizinosaurus_ and its relatives as segnosaurs, after _Segnosaurus_ as possible aberrant prosauropod descendants.

[germanomagnone]

I really have a nice sympathy for Therizinosauridae, they seem like type of geese with the hands of the "Edward Scissorhands" or the claws of "Wolverine" in the "X-Man"

[Summer-xein]

As usual, I am a satisfied and now more educated viewer and I am truly enjoying this channel. Thank you to everyone who continues to allow this channel to form and develop.

[brianlevine]

While the turtle-themed species named may be off based on its initial speculation, at least the genus name still suits this unique dinosaur. It's hard to go wrong with calling something with massive claws a 'scythe lizard.' Although, could you imagine these guys cosplaying as the Ninja Turtles? And I do mean any incarnation.

[WESsential]

When I was a kid in the early 90s, I was always struck by those big mystery claws.. and the weirdness of what were called "segnosaurs" at the time. Or the mystery giant "toe" claws of Megaraptor .. which ended up being hand claws.

Or the other set of mystery claws that ended up being even weirder, Dinocheirus.
It was sooo satisfying seeing the mysteries of those fossils solved. It turns out that Therizinasaurus, megaraptor, and dinocheirus were even weirder than kid me could have imagined.

I'd love to see an episode on the Megaraptor. It's just as interesting as this or dinocheirus

[rxptrs]

Unhinged Blake is what we love to see!

[veggieboyultimate]

They actually did my recommendation from the marsupial lion video!

Thank you PBS Eons!