Gallimimus

Gallimimus

Name	Gallimimus

Order	Saurischia

Suborder	Theropoda

Class	Ornithithomimidae

Name Translation	Chicken mimic

Period	Late Cretaceous (75-65 million years ago)

Location	Mongolia,Central Asia

Diet	Omnivore

Size	4-6 meters

Gallimimus (gal-IH-mime-US) was a fast, ostirich-like dinosaur, with a long, extended tail for balancing while running, and was rather intelligent by dinosaur standards. It had a long neck and large, round eyes, possibly for night vision, suggesting a nocturnal lifestyle (though there is no reason it wasn't diurnal)

Discovery

Gallimimus was found in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia in early 1

220px-Gallimimus 1 NHM3 — Gallimimus Skeleton

963 by Proffessor Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska. It was named by paleontologist Rinchen Barsbold in 1972, who thought it looked rather rooster-like in appearance. Most fossils have been found in Mongolia. At the time only on species of Gallimimus was known, and it was dubbed Gallimimus bullatus, because the bulbous swelling in the braincase resembled a bulla, which is a capsule worn by Roman youths around their necks. A second species, named Gallimimus mongoliensis, was discovered in 1996.

In the Media

Gallimimus was briefly shown in Jurassic Park as a stampeding herd that run by some protagonists, and then attacked and one was eaten by a Tyrannosaurus rex, however, in real life, it would probably have been T. rex's close relative Tarbosaurus. Also, in the Carnivores series, they appear as ambient creatures that run away if the player is to close. They also made a few appearances in The Land Before Time series. It's also a playable dinosaur in the game Dinosaur King.

File:Jurassic Park (6 10) Movie CLIP - They're Flocking This Way! (1993) HD

Anatomy

It is likely that Gallimimus was a very intelligent creature, based on mass and proportion to brain. At least quite smart among

most dinosaurs. It shared many features with its relatives like Ornithomimus. It is guessed that Gallimimus was an omnivore, similiar to the Oviraptor. Its main diet consisted of small lizards and bugs, some eggs, and some plants. Gallimimus ran on two slender legs. It's predicted to have been ostrich-like, and most likely had feathers, given that feathers were preserved in it's relatives and more massive feathered dinosaurs did exist. It had a long, flat, toothless beak, with the bottom part shaped like a shovel,a dn probably would've been helpful in crunching hard plants like nuts or roots. It weighed about 970 lbs and was about 8 meters (26 feet) in length, making it one of the largest of ornithomimids. It

Galimius dinosaurs — Galimimus from Dinosaurs in the Beginning

had three claws on each arm, with three on each foot. The tail, like many other dinosaurs, was meant for balance, especially while they were running. Like other ornithomimids, it was a very fast runner, possibly capable of running up to 43 mph, which is about the same as an ostirich's top speed and over twice as fast as Olympic sprinters! Gallimimus also had large eyes, which possibly suggest that it was a nocturnal dinosaur like Troodon.