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Nessov's Therizinosaurs
I recently read Nessov's 1995 monograph "Dinosaurs of Northern Eurasia".
Russian original here:
http://cretaceous.ru/files/pub/nesov1995_dinoz_sev_evrazii.pdf
English translation here: http://paleoglot.org/files/Nessov%2095.pdf
Nessov lists a number of discoveries of "segnosaurs" (now
therizinosaurs) from various places in the former USSR. At the time,
the group's phylogenetic position was still controversial, and they
were widely thought to be relict prosauropods.
He puts forward the speculation that small primitive therizinosaurs
from the Coniacian of Uzbekistan hung like sloths from sycamore trees
and ate wasp larvae. This is an attractive idea, and the Russian
original includes a speculative life reconstruction, which is
wonderfully goofy-looking: http://i.imgur.com/nJngnbI.jpg
I'm wondering two things:
1. Given that we now know that therizinosaurs were maniraptors, and we
even have good fossils of primitive taxa like Falcarius, how feasible
is Nessov's "sloth" hypothesis today? (I'm guessing not very.)
2. Has the material from Uzbekistan ever been described or figured
anywhere else? It seems to me that it would still be quite
scientifically valuable.
Thanks!