SCIENCE LAB SCENIC * : MIGHTY MITT [ PART 2 ]

A dinosaur that really knew how to get a grip with a bizarre '' manipulating claw.''

A RUSSIAN paleontologist unearthed a fragmentary skeleton of the animal in 1979 in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

The area's rocks date back to the Late Cretaceous period some 67 million years ago, when this region was a swampy river delta.

It was home, at the time, to diverse dinosaurs, including armored ankylosaurus, dome-headed pachycephalosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus rex cousin Tarbosaurus.

Scurrying underfoot were Manipulonyx, which belonged to a family of diminutive dinosaurs known as alvarezsaurids. These animals possessed tiny forearms that ended in single large digits with hook-like claws.

The other fingers were much smaller. That led some scientists to mistake the dinosaurs for flightless birds.

How alvarezsaurids used their peculiar paws has incited debate.  Some scientists think they dug up insects like modern anteaters.

But others have argued that with their long legs and short arms they could not reach the ground.

So instead, the theory goes, they are eggs.

The World Students Society thanks Jack Tamisiea.