biology

Paralitherizinosaurus

Paralitherizinosaurus is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Paralitherizinosaurus rather than just read about it. In short: Paralitherizinosaurus is an extinct genus of therizinosaurid theropod dinosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous Osoushinai Formation of Hokkaido, Japan. The genus contains a single species, Paralitherizinosaurus japonicus, known from a partial right hand and cervical vertebra.

Key takeaways

Paralitherizinosaurus belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Paralitherizinosaurus to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Paralitherizinosaurus from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Paralitherizinosaurus is an extinct genus of therizinosaurid theropod dinosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous Osoushinai Formation of Hokkaido, Japan. The genus contains a single species, Paralitherizinosaurus japonicus, known from a partial right hand and cervical vertebra. Paralitherizinosaurus represents the youngest therizinosaur known from Japan.

Discovery and naming

The Paralitherizinosaurus holotype specimen, NMV-52, was discovered in September 2000 in layers of the Osoushinai Formation (Yezo Group) in Nakagawa, Hokkaido, Japan, which dates to the early Campanian age of the late Cretaceous period. The specimen consists of a partial cervical vertebra and the metacarpal I, proximal ends of unguals I and II, and nearly complete ungual III of the right hand. Some of these remains were first described by Murakami et al. in 2008 as belonging to an indeterminate genus of maniraptoran theropod, possibly with therizinosauroid affinities. In 2022, Kobayashi et al. described Paralitherizinosaurus as a new genus and species of therizinosaurid making it the third therizinosaur found in Japan. This taxon represents the first named therizinosaur from Japan, with two other unnamed specimens being known. The generic name, "Paralitherizinosaurus", combines the Greek words "paralos", meaning "tidal" and "therizo", meaning "scythe", and the Latin "sauros", meaning "lizard". The specific name, "japonicus", refers to the taxon's discovery in Japan.

Classification

In their phylogenetic analyses, Kobayashi et al. (2022) recovered Paralitherizinosaurus as a member of an unresolved clade containing Therizinosaurus, Suzhousaurus, and an unnamed therizinosaurid from the Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan. The cladogram below displays the results of their phylogenetic analyses. Similar results were recovered in an expanded version of this matrix in the 2025 description of Duonychus.

References

External links Media related to Paralitherizinosaurus at Wikimedia Commons

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Paralitherizinosaurus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Paralitherizinosaurus claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Paralitherizinosaurus before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Paralitherizinosaurus ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Paralitherizinosaurus

In research: Paralitherizinosaurus appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Paralitherizinosaurus in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Paralitherizinosaurus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Campanian dinosaurs, Dinosaur genera, Dinosaurs of Japan, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Paralitherizinosaurus outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Paralitherizinosaurus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Paralitherizinosaurus means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Paralitherizinosaurus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Paralitherizinosaurus in simple terms?

Why does Paralitherizinosaurus matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Paralitherizinosaurus?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Paralitherizinosaurus.