page_title: Falcarius
section_title: Postcranial skeleton
hierarchical_section_title: Falcarius / Description / Postcranial skeleton
caption_attribution_description: English: Falcarius skeletal cast, detail of chest region, on display at the Natural History Museum of Utah, Salt Lake City.
context_page_description: Falcarius is a genus of therizinosaur dinosaurs that lived during the Early Cretaceous period in what is now North America. The first fossil remains were collected in the Cedar Mountain Formation in 1999, with subsequent findings made during the 2000s. The genus is known from multiple specimens ranging from immature to fully-grown individuals.
  Falcarius were 4 m long bipedal herbivores with a small head and an elongated neck and tail. Unlike advanced therizinosaurs, Falcarius had a propubic pelvis and three-toed feet with a reduced hallux.
  Falcarius is the basalmost known definitive therizinosaurian taxon, and has been considered a transitional form connecting the typical theropod bodyplan to the unusual morphology of Therizinosauridae. Its description in 2005, following that of the basal therizinosauroid Beipiaosaurus from the Early Cretaceous of China in 1999, helped clarify the early evolution of the Therizinosauria and its relationships within the larger group of Theropoda.
context_section_description: The partitioning of the vertebral column followed that of most maniraptorans. The neck was very long with elongated cervical vertebrae. The tail was relatively long. The arm was moderately long with a somewhat robust humerus. The relatively large, and slightly recurved, pointed ten- to thirteen-centimeter (four- to five-inch) hand claws were likely used in self-defence.
  Falcarius is known from many specimens, including complete forelimb specimens. Most of the bones of the pectoral girdle and forelimb are known, although sternal bones are not preserved. Both a left and right scapula are preserved, and they are both mostly complete as well. The blades of the scapulae are about 22.5 cm (225 mm) long, and also quite slender, with barely any expansion. They are curved instead of straight. The scapula is placed in a relatively high position. Two coracoids are also preserved, although they differ more than the scapulae in morphology. The right coracoid is the better preserved of the two. The coracoid is not specially enlarged. The furcula is elongated and narrow, its branches placed at an angle of 104°. It is V-shaped and possesses a small hypocleidium at the front. The arm as a whole is not especially developed in length but shows signs of an increasing robustness. The humerus has a rather short triangular deltopectoral crest. The epicondyles are exceptionally thick, indicating a strong musculature. The ulna is lightly curved. The hand is rather long but not very robust, with in general an elongated metacarpus, although the first metacarpal is short. The first finger diverges from the second finger, the longest of the hand. The third finger is very thin. The hand claws are moderately curved, rather pointed, and moderately long.
  In the pelvis the ilium was by a moderate inclination partly adapted to a more raised position of the trunk. The pelvis was propubic or mesopubic: the pubic bone pointed more or less forwards. The leg was relatively long and adapted to running, with the lower leg longer than the thighbone. In the foot there were three weight-bearing toes. The first toe did not reach the ground nor did the first metatarsal touch the ankle.
caption: Pectoral girdle of skeletal cast
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-RX100M2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "DSC-RX100M2 v1.00", "Image DateTime": "2015:10:25 20:32:36", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "290", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail ImageDescription": "", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "DSC-RX100M2", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail Software": "DSC-RX100M2 v1.00", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2015:10:25 20:32:36", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "26860", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9931", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/15", "EXIF FNumber": "9/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:10:25 20:32:36", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:10:25 20:32:36", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "-577/320", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "217/128", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "52/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5472", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3648", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "26564", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "28", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[52/5, 371/10, 9/5, 49/10]"}