Pronunciation: ER-lik-o-SOR-us
Meaning: Death-God lizard
Author/s: Perle (2001)
Synonyms: Erlicosaurus andrewsi
First Discovery: Ömnögovi, Mongolia
Discovery Chart Position: #277
Erlikosaurus andrewsi
Not too long ago, the profile of theropod dinosaurs was simple: they were predators and carnivores and, as such, were mostly sleek and agile with lots of sharp pointy teeth. However, a branch of theropods called therizinosaurs were just freaky and deviated from the theropod blueprint in so many ways. They had wide hips and a backwards-pointing ornithischian-like pubis to make space for a pot belly, their jaws sport features that suggest the presence of a beak, but they were not birds, their hands were adorned with huge scythe-like claws that they didn't use to rent prey asunder, and their teeth were blunt and leaf-shaped. Some, like Erlikosaurus, had a well-developed sense of smell, hearing and balance, which are traits suited to agile hunters. But Erlikosaurus, and, in fact, all therizinosaurs, were herbivorous and somewhat sloth-like, and the only things they hunted were plants.
(Chapman's Mongolian Death God Lizard)Etymology
Coined by Perle and Barsbold in 1980, Erlikosaurus is derived from "Erlik" (the god of the dead in Mongolian mythology) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard), while the species epithet, andrewsi, honors palaeontologist Roy Chapman Andrews who led the American Asiatic expeditions in 1922-1930. All straight forward, so far. But then Perle tried to sneakily republish the same specimen under the Latinised name Erlicosaurus (with a "c") the following year as if it were new. No-one was fooled, though, and the original name (with a "k") is the one that is widely regarded as valid.
Discovery
The remains of Erlikosaurus were discovered at Baysheen Tsav (aka Baishin, Baynshin, or Bainshin, Tsav) in the Bayan Shire Formation (aka Baynshire Svita, Bayan Shireh Svita, Bayan Shiren Svita, Bayanshiree Svita, Bayn-shirenskaya Svita), Ömnögovi (Southern Gobi) Aimag (Province), Mongolia, during a Soviet-Mongolian expedition in 1972. The holotype (PST No. 100/111) includes the only known three-dimensionally preserved and nearly complete therizinosaurian skull, a left humerus (upper arm bone), a pes (foot) with unusually long and slender claws, and some fragmentary cervical (neck) vertebrae. In 2014, its skull was CT scanned by Stephen Lautenschlager, Emily Rayfield, Altangerel Perle, Lyndsay Zanno and Lawrence Witmer then digitally
prepared, disarticulated, and restored to reveal its inner workings.
In 2010, Greg Paul accused Erlikosaurus of being the same critter as Enigmosaurus, which was also found in the Baynshire Formation. But the pair are currently uncomparable, as the latter is known only from an "enignatic" hip, while a hip belonging to the former has yet to be discovered.
