DZHARAONYX

The first remains that would become part of Dzharaonyx were discovered by Lev Nesov at Dzharakuduk between 1977 and 1994, followed by additional fossils found during expeditions by URBAC, a collaboration between scientists from Uzbekistan, Russia, Britain, the United States, and Canada, between 1997 and 2006. Yet more alvarezsaurid remains from the same locality were described in 2017, but at this point, they all remained nameless. It wasn't until 2022 that Alexander Averianov and Hans-Dieter Sues linked all of the above material and formally named Dzharaonyx eski, "old Dzharakuduk claw", referencing its status as the oldest known member of the subfamily Parvicursorinae, its discovery at Dzharakuduk in the Kyzylkum Desert, and the prominent hand claw typical of alvarezsaurids.

Despite lacking skull material, Dzharaonyx is known from a rich array of body fossils, including a robust upper arm, vertebrae, forelimb bones, pelvic fragments, and specialised hand and foot claws that display hallmark features of parvicursorine alvarezsaurids. What makes Dzharaonyx unique are tongue-twisting features of its back and neck vertebrae, fingers and toes, and an unusually generous "olecranon process of the ulna": a bump located at the elbow which anchors the tricep muscle to the lower arm.

Dating to the Turonian period of the Late Cretaceous, Dzharaonyx represents the oldest record of Parvicursorinae from anywhere in the world, and its mass (less than 3kg) compared to older non-parvicursorinae alvarezsaurids (anything up to 50kg), pushed palaeontologists to suspect that Choiniere et al. were onto something with their theory of "miniaturisation events" along the lineage of Alvarezsauridae. In the case of Dzharaonyx, perhaps a dramatic downsize reflects an ecological niche shift to take advantage of ants and termites, using their specialised hand and foot claws to rip into mounds and nests, much like modern-day Anteaters and Pangolin.