Ornithomimus ɔːrnihthuh-MEYEMUHS,_-THOH
"Emu mimic"
- Length
- 3.8 m (12.5 ft)
- Period
- Late Cretaceous (76.5–66 Mya)
- Place
- North America · Alberta, Canada · Colorado, USA
- Food
- Omnivore
- Clade
- Ornithomimidae
Ornithomimus (; “bird mimic”) is a genus of ornithomimid theropod dinosaurs from the Campanian and Maastrichtian ages of the Late Cretaceous in western North America. Ornithomimus was a swift, bipedal dinosaur which was covered in feathers and equipped with a small toothless beak that may indicate an omnivorous diet. It is usually classified into two species: the type species, Ornithomimus velox, and a referred species, Ornithomimus edmontonicus.
O. velox was named in 1890 by Othniel Charles Marsh on the basis of a foot and partial hand from the Denver Formation of Colorado. Other seventeen species have been named since then, though almost all of them have been subsequently assigned to new genera or shown not to be directly related to O. velox. The best material of species still considered part of the genus has been found in Alberta, representing the species O.
What we know
- Named by Marsh, 1890.
- Body length estimated at about 3.8 m.
- Fossils found in North America and Alberta, Canada.