Big-clawed dinosaurs` nests discovered in Gobi desert

Washington: A nest of big-clawed dinosaurs known as therizinosaurs has been discovered in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

The nesting ground has at least 17 clutches of eggs. Study co-author Yoshitsugu Kobayashi , a vertebrate paleontologist at Hokkaido University in Japan, said that not only is the new find the largest colony of nonavian theropods, but also is the best documented site. Therizinosaurs, lived about 70 million years ago, and had huge, round guts; stumpy legs; a long neck; and a turtle-like head and beak, and were herbivores despite being members of the carnivorous group known as theropods. They also had three-digit claws with which they may have used grasped branches and scraped up plant material. The eggs were round in shape, and had a 5-inch diameter and rough outer shells.