They had stubby but powerful forelimbs, long and gracile hindlimbs, and lightly built skulls.
Despite some birdlike traits, alvarezsaurs were only distantly related to birds.
They lived in a place called the Kokorkom, meaning ‘desert of the bones’ in the local language.
"Although many of the inhabitants of the Kokorkom Desert were burrowers, Alnashetri was a lightweight animal that moved across the dunes on its slender legs.
He added, "Its arms were well developed, though not long enough to allow it to fly, and its tail, although not fully preserved, appears to have been as long (relative to body size) as that of any other typical carnivorous dinosaur."
Alvarezsaurs were predominantly small. They had stubby but powerful forelimbs, long and gracile hindlimbs, and lightly built skulls. The researchers doubt that Alna had feathers. Despite some birdlike traits, alvarezsaurs were only distantly related to birds. They lived in a place called the Kokorkom, meaning ‘desert of the bones’ in the local language. "Although many of the inhabitants of the Kokorkom Desert were burrowers, Alnashetri was a lightweight animal that moved across the dunes on its slender legs. Its body resembled that of a rooster, but with a long tail," palaeontologist and study co-author Sebastián Apesteguía of the Felix de Azara Foundation and National Scientific and Technical Research Council in Argentina said.
He added, "Its arms were well developed, though not long enough to allow it to fly, and its tail, although not fully preserved, appears to have been as long (relative to body size) as that of any other typical carnivorous dinosaur."
