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Alectrosaurus
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Alectrosaurus

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Alectrosaurus (; meaning "alone lizard") is a genus of tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period, about some 96 million years ago in what is now the Iren Dabasu Formation.

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Encyclopedic overview

9 sections
Contents
  • Discovery and naming
  • Formerly assigned material
  • Description
  • Distinguishing anatomical features
  • Classification
  • Paleobiology
  • Paleoenvironment
  • See also
  • References

Alectrosaurus (; meaning "alone lizard") is a genus of tyrannosauroid theropod dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period, about some 96 million years ago in what is now the Iren Dabasu Formation.

It was a medium-sized, moderately-built, ground-dwelling, bipedal carnivore, estimated at with a body shape similar to its much larger advanced relative, Tyrannosaurus. Alectrosaurus was a very fast running tyrannosauroid as indicated by the elongated hindlimbs that likely filled the niche of a pursuit predator, a trait that seems to be lost by the advanced and robust tyrannosaurids, in adulthood.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Alectrosaurus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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