Erlikosaurus a genus of tertiary dinosaur that lived in the Cretaceous period and inhabited Asia. It was named after the demon Erlik from Mongolian mythology and paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews by Altangerel Perle in 1980. It was a very important discovery because Erlikosaurus was the only segnosaur found with a skull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erlikosaurus was more similar to Deinonychus in size, it was a small but lighter animal. It had a horny beak resembling that of a bird used to grow plants and the front snout was toothless. Its teeth were smaller and more suited to eating plants than meat. It had longer arms with large, thin, slender claws on its legs that it used when the animal waded in rivers. Its hind vertebrae were designed to lift an animal, which meant it was a primitive velvet. It had a short tail and legs, designed for a more \"couch potato\" lifestyle than that of a predator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erlikosaurus reached about 3.4 m in length and 150 to 250 kg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n