近50年来，奇异的兽脚亚目恐龙“奇异恐手龙”(Deinocheirus mirificus)一直被认为是古生物学上最为引人入胜的谜团之一。此前，人们只是从1965年在蒙古发掘出的两个巨大前肢知道它们，人们也曾认为它们属于似鸟龙、镰刀龙、或是一个全新的兽脚亚目恐龙分支当中的一员。

现在，新的考古发掘工作发现了这种恐龙的两个几乎完整的骨架，从而使得Yuong-Nam Lee等人能够提供一个关于“奇异恐手龙”的详细画面。结果显示，这是一种巨大的动物，头骨为鸭嘴形，驼背，是似鸟龙中已知最大的，生活在潮湿环境中，所吃的东西包括植物和鱼。

原文摘要：

Resolving the long-standing enigmas of a giant ornithomimosaur Deinocheirus mirificus

Yuong-Nam Lee, Rinchen Barsbold, Philip J. Currie, Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, Hang-Jae Lee,Pascal Godefroit, François Escuillié & Tsogtbaatar Chinzorig

The holotype of Deinocheirus mirificus was collected by the 1965 Polish–Mongolian Palaeontological Expedition at Altan Uul III in the southern Gobi of Mongolia1. Because the holotype consists mostly of giant forelimbs (2.4 m in length) with scapulocoracoids2, for almost 50 yearsDeinocheirus has remained one of the most mysterious dinosaurs. The mosaic of ornithomimosaur and non-ornithomimosaur characters in the holotype has made it difficult to resolve the phylogenetic status of Deinocheirus3, 4. Here we describe two new specimens of Deinocheirus that were discovered in the Nemegt Formation of Altan Uul IV in 2006 and Bugiin Tsav in 2009. The Bugiin Tsav specimen (MPC-D 100/127) includes a left forelimb clearly identifiable as Deinocheirusand is 6% longer than the holotype. The Altan Uul IV specimen (MPC-D 100/128) is approximately 74% the size of MPC-D 100/127. Cladistic analysis indicates that Deinocheirus is the largest member of the Ornithomimosauria; however, it has many unique skeletal features unknown in other ornithomimosaurs, indicating that Deinocheirus was a heavily built, non-cursorial animal with an elongate snout, a deep jaw, tall neural spines, a pygostyle, a U-shaped furcula, an expanded pelvis for strong muscle attachments, a relatively short hind limb and broad-tipped pedal unguals. Ecomorphological features in the skull, more than a thousand gastroliths, and stomach contents (fish remains) suggest that Deinocheirus was a megaomnivore that lived in mesic environments.（doi:10.1038/nature13874 & doi: 10.1038/nature13930）

对应Nature杂志： 2014年11月13日Nature杂志精选

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