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Paleontologists Solve Mystery of Long-Armed, Bizarre Dinosaur; Finally Unearth a Complete Skeleton

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Scientists have finally solved the mystery behind one of the oddest dinosaurs ever to roam the Earth.

According to BBC News, the only remains that existed of the Deinocheirus mirificus for 50 years since their discovery in the 1960s were its giant arms. At long last, the rest of the beast's body was dug up and what the paleontologists reconstructed looked more like a hodgepodge of different dinosaurs.

"It turned out to be one of the weirdest dinosaurs, it's weird beyond our imagination," Yuong-Nam Lee, of South Korea's Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources and the lead researcher of the study published in the journal Nature, told BBC News.

D. mirificus apparently was about 36 feet long, weighed six tons, had a beak, a humpback, hooved feat and huge forearms that measured eight feet. At the end of their arms were three long talons, which were how it hunted prey.

"Deinocheirus has remained one the most mysterious dinosaurs in the world," Lee told Reuters. "We found almost (complete) skeletons of Deinocheirus and know now how it looked, how big it was and what it ate."

The dinosaur lived in swampy conditions and its hooves would have kept it from sinking into the ground, but its massive size and short legs limited its mobility. It likely ate plants and fish.

"Many dinosaur fans have seen pictures of the 8ft-long arms and hands, and they really are amazing and wonderful. People were really wondering what the rest of this animal looked like," John Hutchinson, a palaeontologist from the UK's Royal Veterinary College not involved in the study, told BBC News. "Now we know, and it's just so freaking weird - we never would have expected this animal to look so bizarre.

"It really is shocking to see how many weird features it has. It changes our view of what kind of forms dinosaurs can even take."

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