TheropodaAlvarezsauridae

Mononykus olecranus

Mononykus olecranus skeletal reconstruction, left lateral view, reconstructed length ~1 m.
Scale bar = 10 centimeters
Taxon
Mononykus olecranus Perle et al., 1993
Reconstructed length
~1 m (3.5 feet)
View
Left lateral
Drawing
© Scott Hartman
Drawn
2015, revised 2026
Clade
  1. Theropoda
  2. Tetanurae
  3. Coelurosauria
  4. Maniraptoriformes
  5. Maniraptora
  6. Alvarezsauridae

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Mononykus was an alvarezsaurid, a group of small, lightly built theropods that may have specialized in eating insects. Living during the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia, Mononykus had extremely short arms ending in a single stout claw, which is thought to have been used for digging into insect nests, or potentially in peeling back bark to find grubs.