Although all modern therizinosaurs are herbivores, in the not-too-distant  past, their family tree included a predatory branch. Therizinonychus polynyx was the most common species of this extinct group. T. polynyx lived in Asia during the Miocene. Using its powerful body and large, sharp claws,  Therizinonychus would overturn contemporary ankylosaurs, exposing their soft  bellies. After ankylosaurs went into decline during the mid-Miocene, the  therizinonychoaurs went with them.  The clade's final species, such as the enormous Carnofalx bestialis showed some tendancy toward a more varied diet, but died at the end of the Pliocene.

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