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About Pelecanimimus:
Along with Harpymimus, Pelecanimimus is what paleontologists call a "basal" ornithomimid, with less evolved features than the bigger, faster bird mimics of the late Cretaceous like Ornithomimus. In this respect, the small size of Pelecanimimus makes sense, but what's most puzzling is this dinosaur's huge number of teeth--well over 200, the most of any theropod yet discovered. (The only other ornithomimid known to have teeth is Harpymimus, and it sported a mere dozen or so.)
We may never know why Pelecanimimus had so many teeth, but we can speculate about why later ornithomimids were completely toothless. As these fast, ostrich-like dinosaurs learned to feed primarily on insects and small animals (which don't need to be chewed), having teeth became an evolutionary luxury, and they gradually disappeared.
