Ornithomimus
or-NITH-oh-MY-mus
- featured
A bipedal therapod with long hind limbs and a large body, as well as a toothless beak. These bird-like, swift-footed dinosaurs measured around 3 meters in length.
Discovery
This species was first described in 1890 based on a partial hind limb dating to the Cretaceous period, found in the Denver Formation. In 2015, paleontologists redescribed the species using the same bone fragments. The name Ornithomimus means ‘bird mimic’.
Palaeoecology
Paleontologically, not much is known about the Ornithomimus and how it lived. The fossil record suggests it was a cursorial species, meaning it has limbs specially adapted for running, as well as being an herbivore.
Information
- Era
- Late Cretaceous
- Family
- Ornithomimidae
- Genus
- Ornithomimus
- Height
- 3M
- Length
- 3.8M
- Weight
- 350Kg
- Diet
- Ground Paleobotany
- Egg batch size
- 4 - 6
