This Dinosaur May Have Used Its Strange Clawed Hands to Pilfer and Pierce Eggs

A fresh analysis of a fossil found almost 50 years ago reveals a newly described genus named for its “manipulating claw”

Sara Hashemi | Daily Correspondent

January 20, 2026

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Millions of years ago, a tiny dinosaur in what’s now Mongolia may have used its unique claws to steal meals in the dead of night.

A fresh analysis of a roughly 67-million-year-old fossil—a nearly complete spiky forearm, including a hooked claw, along with other bones—uncovered almost 50 years ago hints that the owner specialized in pilfering and piercing eggs. What’s more, the study authors suggest that this dinosaur represents a newly described genus and species, Manipulonyx reshetovi, named for its “manipulating claw” and the paleontologist who discovered the specimen.

The findings were published in December in the journal Proceedings of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

“It’s a spectacular arm,” says Denver Fowler, a paleontologist at the Badlands Dinosaur Museum who was not involved with the study, to Taylor Mitchell Brown at Science News. “The fact that this is the most complete arm of these already bizarre-looking dinosaurs is exceptional; their arms were even weirder than we thought.”

A Russian paleontologist found the skeletal remains in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert in 1979. The fossil belongs to a family of feathered, two-legged dinosaurs called alvarezsaurids—thought to be about 20 to 80 inches long—which are known for their stubby arms that had one long claw and two tiny side digits.

Past research suggested that alvarezsaurids used their forelimbs to dig into ant and termite colonies, like anteaters. But in 2018, after finding an alvarezsaurid fossil close to shell fragments, a team of Chinese researchers proposed that the dinosaurs instead relied on their odd appendages to steal eggs from oviraptorids, a family of birdlike dinosaurs. Similarly, M. reshetovi’s museum label noted that fossilized eggshells were found near the remains.

For the new analysis, researchers CT-scanned the skeletal remains to create digital 3D versions of them. The reconstructions revealed differences from other alvarezsaurids, indicating that the fossils came from a previously undescribed species. Moreover, the scans hinted that the bones’ owner probably didn’t use its diminutive arms to unearth insect homes.

“Such a limb would have been completely unsuitable for destroying termite mounds,” study co-author Alexey Lopatin, a paleontologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, tells Science News. “The thin piercing claw would have broken off in the process, and the fragile vestigial fingers and spikes would have been damaged.”

The study authors suggest that M. reshetovi used its arm spikes, likely covered in keratin—the substance that makes up fingernails—and teensy side fingers to grasp a slippery egg. Then, the dinosaur would use its long claw to puncture the eggshell.

Stephen Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland who was not involved in the study, tells the New York Times’ Jack Tamisiea that the authors’ egg-snatching hypothesis is plausible. However, the dinosaurs may have had a different use for their strange limbs, which future research might uncover.

“All I’m confident in saying is that they weren’t using these arms and hands to fly or swim,” Brusatte says. “Beyond that, let your imaginations run wild.”

Sara Hashemi | Read More

Sara Hashemi is a science writer and fact-checker currently based in New York City. Her work has appeared in Sierra, The Body, Maisonneuve magazine and more.