Qiupanykus

Qiupanykus (IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet|, meaning "claw from the Qiupa Formation") is an extinct genus of alvarezsaurid theropod from the Late Cretaceous Qiupa Formation of Henan Province, China. The type and only species is Q. zhangi, named for Shuancheng Zhang, who assisted in finding the fossils of Qiupanykus. ==Discovery== thumb|left|A map of the Qiupa Formation with a corresponding stratigraphic chart The Qiupa Formation is located in the Tantou Basin which is in Luanchuan County of the Henan province in China. Lithological correlation of the local strata has dated the Qiupa Formation to the Late Cretaceous. More specific analyses have suggested that the formation dates to the end of the Maastrichtian stage, which was the final stage of the Mesozoic Era. This would make Qiupanykus and its contemporaries were among the last-surviving non-avian dinosaurs.

The Qiupa Formation preserves a wide variety of dinosaur eggs, many of which have been named as ootaxa, as well as body fossils. Alvarezsaurid remains were found near the village of Guanping in Luanchuan County and were reported in the scientific literature in 2012 and 2017, but the latter of these would not be described until the next year. The holotype, and only specimen of what would later be named Qiupanykus was prepared and stored at the Henan Geological Museum in Zhengzhou after being excavated and was given the designation 41HIII-0101. A full description was published in 2018 by Lü Junchang, Li Xu, Chang Huali, Jia Songhai, Zhang Jiming, Gao Diansong, Zhang Yiyang, Zhang Chengjun, and Ding Fang in the journal of the Chinese Geological Survey. A second specimen from the Qiupa Formation, given the designation 41HIII-0104, was suggested to be a new taxon, but was not named or fully described.