Random Most Bizarre Dinosaurs That Ever Existed (15 items)

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  (#10) The Kentrosaurus Puts Porcupines To Shame

  Kentrosaurus takes the armored spines made famous by its cousin the stegosaurus and pushes the idea one step further. Not only do they sport the iconic vertical plates on their shoulders, but those plates transform into deadly spikes as they travel down the kentrosaurs back. Two of those spines jut directly out of their front legs, and the ones on its tail can be swung around like a prehistoric morning-star. These incredibly badass tail-spikes go by the equally badass name "thagomizers." 

  These massive herbivores get their name from their distinctive spikes, which evolved to pose a formidable challenge for potential predators. Researchers have studied the physics behind the kentrosaurs body to better understand just how powerful they may have been, and the results are fascinating. The kentrosaurus had a flexible skeleton that allowed it to move and turn with ease, ensuring predators couldn’t sneak up on them. They used their long, muscular tails as massive spiked clubs and could swing them at a maximum speed of 89 mph. Paleontologist Heinrich Mallison described the force as powerful enough to shatter ribs and pierce flesh, and even said the speeds achieved by the tail were “greater than those sufficient to fracture a human skull.”
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  (#11) Leptoceratops Was An Adorable Ceratopsian

  These petite ceratopsians were a contemporary of their cousin, the triceratops, and the two could be found throughout North America. Unlike the triceratops, they had no horns and ran around on two legs. It’s an interesting bit of natural history that all dinosaurs started out as bipedal, and then many independently evolved the quadruped form. As herbivores, the leptoceratops would scurry on the ground, rooting up vegetation with their pronounced beak. They lived at the very end of the dinosaurs time on earth, only existing for about 50 million years before the extinction event that ended the Cretaceous period and wiped out nearly all of the dinosaurs.
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  (#1) Linhenykus Barely Had Arms

  Linhenykus monodactylus is a small dinosaur in a group of species known as alvarezsaurs, whose membership consists of bipedal dinosaurs with absurdly tiny arms. This particularly species inhabited the area which would become Mongolia between 84 and 75 million years ago, and it is unique among the alvarezsaurs. Unlike its close relatives, who all have multiple fingers, linhenykus only has the one, heavily-clawed finger. This makes linhenykus the only known dinosaur to possesses a single finger per arm, a trait which is unusual even to this day.

  It is unclear exactly why linhenykus and its relatives had such tiny arms, but there is one theory floating around in the paleontological community. It is hypothesized linhenykus used their thick claws to dig at ants hills and termite mounds to break in and feast on the small insects hiding inside. These creatures were very small, able to fit in the palm of your hand, and could have subsisted on an insectivorous diet.
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  (#7) Concavenator Probably Had Some Back Problems

  This odd theropod is Concavenator corcovatus, a carnivorous dinosaur that roamed Europe about 130 million years ago. The noticeable hump on its back is unique for these types of dinosaurs, and it has left scientists puzzled since its discovery in 2003. Researchers have thrown out all sorts of theories about the hump, speculating it could be used for mating, storing fat, or maybe that it was purely decorative. Another one of concavenator’s bizarre features are the bumpy protrusions on its arms.

  These are similar to the anchor points for modern bird feathers, but scientists believed concavenator most likely had non-scale protrusions that dangled from them. The debate is still ongoing as to the true nature of these strange knobs.
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  (#2) Halszkaraptor Was So Weird Scientists Thought It Was Fake

  Halszkaraptor's skeleton appeared so unusual that at first, experts didn't even think it was real. Andrea Cau, an investigator from the University of Bologna, explains:

  "It was so strange that we suspected that it might have been a chimera – a mix of different skeletons glued together. It wouldn’t be the first time."

  But once the chunk of rock containing the fossil was scanned, the scientists determined that this creature was for real. It seems to have been amphibious, though its features look more like those of a duck or a swan than a reptile. It presumably ate fish.
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  (#6) Deinocheirus Mirificus Was The Subject Of A 50 Year Long Mystery

  Perhaps one of the most unusual dinosaurs of all, Deinocheirus mirificus was at the heart of a puzzle in the scientific community since 1965. At first, the only fossils recovered from this dinosaur were a pair of massive arms, which measured almost eight feet in length. The arms were originally found in the Gobi desert, but subsequent expeditions to find the rest of its body were fruitless. That is, until two other skeletons were discovered in 2006 and 2009.

  At first, researchers were dismayed to hear poachers had stolen and sold off many parts of the skeletons, including a skull. By a stroke of miraculous luck a man named Pascal Godefroit, a representative of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, remembered seeing some of the stolen fossils and was able to point the investigation in the right direction. They discovered that the fossils had been sold to private collectors in Japan and Germany, and were finally able to put an end to a 50 year mystery. 

  What scientists learned from the unification of the skeleton was even more shocking than the story of the discovery itself, as Deinocheirus mirificus proved to be one of the most unique dinosaurs in the fossil record. It had a toothless, duck-like bill used to skim water for food, as well as two powerful arms for gathering food and stripping branches from trees. It grew to the size of a tyrannosaurus, and had a massive hump on its back to help its legs support its large body. About 1,400 rocks were found in the belly of one specimen, leading researchers to believe they used them to grind up food in their stomachs, similar to many modern birds. 

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