Therizinosaurus cheloniformis

If there is one thing that we can all safely agree on, it is that some dinosaurs are not all that we can expect.  Given that they have no actual living representations in the present day, and their two closest living relatives; the birds and the crocodiles; are so different from one another, we cannot predict with %100 accuracy what a dinosaur will look like or potentially behave without enough fossils to make up a complete skeleton.  What a dinosaur was assumed to appear like decades prior, during its initial discovery, may be completely different to what we now know that it looked like.  As such, behaviors of some dinosaurs are still subject to debate even to this day, even ones that have such complete skeletons that we all but know for certain how they could have looked, behaved, and acted before their final moments.

Enter Therizinosaurus cheloniformis, one of the strangest dinosaurs dug up in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia.  It was a large dinosaur, roughly about 10 meters in length (33 feet).  It was heavy set, likely had feathers, and was a theropod; the group of dinosaurs that include Tyrannosaurs, Carnosaurs, and the like, and also the most 'bird-like' of the dinosaurs.  What made it stand out from the crowd upon its initial discovery was its arms; they were roughly 2.5-3.5 meters (8-11 feet) long, and sported massive, scythe-like claws.  Of its skeleton, we only have a few partial ribs, the ankles, and the aformentioned forearms; not all that much to go on.

One way of solving the mystery, however, of what a dinosaur looked like is to compare and contrast other dinosaurs of the same group.  It was initially believed that Therizinosaurus was a powerful predator, like Tyrannosaurus rex, capable of holding its own against such beasts with ease.  After all, it was a theropod; theropods all ate meat and were ferocious killers...right?  Well, until more Therizinosaurs were discovered we had no clue if that was right or wrong, but it didn't take long before more were found, and the discoveries were mind-blowing.  Dinosaurs like Nothronychus, Erlikosaurus, and Beipiaosaurus were discovered, and they showed some startling discoveries.  Basal Therizinosaurs, like Beipiaosaurus, were indeed carnivore or at least omnivorous, but Nothronychus and Erlikosaurus were both herbivores.  The image of Therizinosaurus being a powerful predator was no more, replaced instead by the humble, yet powerful, leaf muncher that we know of today...at least until the next new discovery comes along.

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My dad occasionally remarks of paleontology as a joke or pseudo-science whenever it comes into discussion, and at the rate that we change our minds about how certain dinosaurs behaved, acted, and looked I can hardly blame him for thinking that way.  Today's Therizinosaurus as science depicts it looks like a half-plucked turkey and walks like a pot-bellied bear (to coin John Goodman's narration of When Dinosaurs Roamed America), but yesterday's Therizinosaurus was a powerful killer, and believe it or not the Therizinosaurus the day before that was some kind of turtle.  Who knew?

Anyway, I'm not overly satisfied with this MoC, mostly because of his hands.  I wanted to use some blades introduced in the Voya Nui/Mahri Nui toy lines as his claws, because they look more like the original.  However I didn't have enough pieces to make the fingers that I wanted so that they all could move, and the end result would have had too big of hands anyway.  So I had to settle for these other ones, which came from my CHI Gorzan model (which originally I had built into an MoC gorilla that I hope to rebuild sometime in the future.  Most of Therizinosaur's body in fact was converted from the gorilla MoC).  Now instead of a giant bird he looks like he has bear claws...not very cool, but meh.  You take what you can get.


Bionicle, Hero Factory, and Legends of Chima (c) Lego
Models made by Kerian-halcyon

-Kerian