Gallimimus
Gallimimus is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous period, about seventy million years ago. Adults were about 6 metres long, 1. 9 metres tall at the hip and weighed about 440 kilograms. The fossil remains were discovered by Polish-Mongolian expeditions in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the 1960s.
About Gallimimus in brief
Gallimimus is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous period, about seventy million years ago. Adults were about 6 metres long, 1. 9 metres tall at the hip and weighed about 440 kilograms. The genus remains one of the best known members of the group. It is the most commonly found ornithomimosaur in the Nemegt Formation, where it lived alongside its relatives Anserimimus and Deinocheirus. Gallimimus was featured in the movie Jurassic Park, in a scene that was important to the history of special effects, and in shaping the common conception of dinosaurs as bird-like animals. The generic name means ‘chicken mimic’, referring to the similarities between its neck vertebrae and those of the Galliformes. The specific name is derived from bulla, a gold capsule worn by Roman youth, in reference to a bulbous structure at the base of the skull of Gallimius bullatus. The fossil remains were discovered by Polish-Mongolian expeditions in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the 1960s. The fossils were housed at the Polish and USSR Academy of Sciences, which accepted them in 1968. Some of the skeletons were mounted in post-erectures, which were then exhibited in Warsaw in 1968, which shed new light on the interchange of fauna between Asia and North America during the CRetaceous period. Some fossils were also found in the Bugeen Tsaven Basin, outside the Mongolian Tsavan Tsavon region, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and were later exhibited at the Warsaw University of Science and Technology in Poland and the USSR of Sciences in 1968 and 1969.
The largest skeleton was discovered by palaeontologist Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska in Tsaagan Khushuu in 1964; it was preserved lying on its back, and the skull was found under the pelvis. One small specimen was found in TSAagan KhUSHuu in 1967 by another small specimen and was made the holotype specimen of the new genus and species Gallimimum bullatus in 1972. At the time it was named, the fossils represented the most complete and best preserved ornithoimid material yet discovered. As an ornithosaur, Gallimimimus would have been a fleet animal, using its speed to escape predators; its speed has been estimated at 42–56 kmh. It may have had good vision and intelligence comparable to ratite birds, based on the discovery of several specimens preserved in a bone bed. As evidenced by its relative Ornithomimus, it would have had feathers. The hands were proportionally the shortest of any ornithomiids and each had three digits with curved claws. The forelimbs were weak while the hindlimbs are proportionally long. It may also have used small columnar structures in its beak for filter-feeding in water.
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This page is based on the article Gallimimus published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
