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Ornithomimus

By , About.com Guide

A skeleton of Ornithomimus (Wikimedia Commons)

Name:

Ornithomimus (Greek for "bird mimic"); pronounced OR-nith-oh-MIME-us

Habitat:

Swamps and forests of North America

Historical Period:

Late Cretaceous (75-65 million years ago)

Size and Weight:

About 11 feet long and 350 pounds

Diet:

Meat and plants

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Skinny arms and legs; long tail; bipedal stance

About Ornithomimus:

Ornithomimus is the type of dinosaur that movie and TV directors love to show stampeding in herds across vast prehistoric plains: this bipedal omnivore may have been able to run as fast as 30 miles per hour, and it may also have been covered in feathers. Unlike an ostrich, though, which it superficially resembled, Ornithomimus was definitely a land-bound dinosaur, and not a bird. It was closely related to other ornithomimid ("bird mimics") like Dromiceiomimus and Gallimimus.

Like some other dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous--such as Troodon--Ornithomimus was also distinguished by its fairly large brain. While it's unlikely that this "bird mimic" was as smart as a modern ostrich (and that's not saying much), this is a tantalizing clue that dinosaurs were on the verge of evolving bigger brains before they went extinct.

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