News Paleontology

This dino’s fossil claw suggests it snatched eggs, not insects

The fossil forelimb reveals a new species with claws built for grab-and-go meals

A drawing of the slim, feather-covered dinosaur Manipulonyx reshetovi

Roughly 50 centimeters long, the Mongolian dino Manipulonyx reshetovi had a distinctive forelimb and claw suitable for purloining and puncturing eggs for meals.

TotalDino/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

By Taylor Mitchell Brown

This dino had a penchant for pilfering eggs.

A new analysis of a roughly 67-million-year-old fossil forelimb and claw suggests that a rare group of diminutive Mongolian dinos may have evolved to steal and eat eggs.