NAME

Meaning - Shuvuuia is from the Mongolian word for bird (shuvuu)
Pronounced - shu-VOO-ee-a
Named By - Chiappe, Norell and Clark
When Named - 1998
DIET

Carnivore (meat-eater) - it may have eaten insects and worms
SIZE

Length - 3 ft (0.9 m) long
Height - 1 ft (30 cm) tall at the hips
Weight - about 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg)
WHEN IT LIVED

Late Cretaceous period, about 85-75 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED

Fossils have been found in the southern Gobi Desert, Mongolia, Asia.
FOSSILS

Two skulls and some skeletal bones have been found.
CLASSIFICATION
  • Kingdom Animalia (animals)
  • Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
  • Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
  • Order Saurischia - lizard-hipped dinosaurs
  • Suborder Theropoda - bipedal carnivores
  • Tetanura - advanced theropods
  • Infraorder Coelurosauria - lightly-built fast-running predators with hollow bones and large brains
  • Family Alvarezsauria (bird-like, long-legged, light-weight, fast-running dinosaurs with a single claw on each short arm)
  • Genus Shuvuuia
  • Species S. deserti (type species named by Chiappe, Norell and Clark, 1998)
INTERESTING FACTS

Shuvuuia was a fast-running, bird-like, chicken-sized dinosaur. It had a pointed beak (that could open very wide), tiny teeth, long legs, short arms, a long tail, and only one functional finger (clawed, of course) on each hand.