| Xiyunykus
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 126–120 Ma
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| Scaled reconstruction | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Superfamily: | †Alvarezsauroidea |
| Genus: | †Xiyunykus Xuet al., 2018 |
| Type species | |
| †Xiyunykus pengi Xuet al., 2018 | |
Xiyunykus (meaning "western claw"; "xiyu" is Mandarin for "west" and refers to Western China where it was found[1]) is an alvarezsaur from the Early Cretaceous of the Tugulu GroupofChina. It includes one species, Xiyunykus pengi.[1]
Dinosaurs contemporaneous with Xiyunykus in the Tugulu Group of Xinjiang include the stegosaur Wuerhosaurus, the coeval alvarezsaur Tugulusaurus, the carcharodontosaurid Kelmayisaurus, the dubious maniraptoran Phaedrolosaurus, the problematic coelurosaur Xinjiangovenator, and the ceratopsian Psittacosaurus xinjiangensis.[citation needed]
Xiyunykus, along with Bannykus, fills a 70-million year gap in alvarezsaur evolution by exhibiting cranial and postcranial morphologies intermediate between the typical theropod forelimb of Haplocheirus and the highly reduced forelimbs and minute teeth of Late Cretaceous alvarezsaurids.[citation needed]
| Xiyunykus |
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