Legendary

Shuvuuia

Shuvuuia deserti

shoo-VOO-ee-ah· “bird”

🦕 Dinosaur🕰️ Cretaceous🥩 carnivore🦴 Alvarezsauridae

0.6 m

Length

0.3 m

Height

3 kg

Weight

A tiny, bird-like desert dinosaur with long legs and stubby arms each ending in one big claw — probably for ripping open insect nests. Its huge eyes and owl-like ears suggest it hunted at night.

When

Late Cretaceous, ~75 million years ago

Found in

Mongolia

Discovered

Luis Chiappe, 1998

Did you know?

Each stubby arm ended in a single large digging claw.
Owl-like ears and huge eyes suggest it hunted in the dark.
Its name simply means 'bird' in Mongolian.

Artwork: FunkMonk, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.