Garudimimus

Speculative reconstruction of live Garudimimus

• Mongolia

Garudimimus is a genus of dinosaur from the group of Ornithomimosauria within the Theropoda.

Features

Garudimimus had the typical physique of Ornithomimosauria. It was a slender, lightly built dinosaur that was moving exclusively biped. The hind limbs were significantly longer than the front legs, arms and hands were compared with those of other theropods in size, but built dainty. The lightly built head sat on a long neck. The snout was elongated and conspicuously plump, she was wearing a horned beak, teeth were not available. The eyes were relatively large and were located laterally on the head. In the construction of the hind legs Garudimimus shows compared with the more developed Ornithomimidae some primitive features: as the first toe was still present, and the arctometatarsale position of the metatarsal bones (that is, that the second and fourth metatarsal touch only visible at the bottom while the third is ) was not pronounced - also was the metatarsus shorter. Garudimimus reached a length of approximately 4 meters.

His body was geared to fast running. What this dinosaur ate with his toothless beak, is not known.

Discovery and designation

The fossil remains of Garudimimus were discovered in the region Ömnö Gobi Aimag in Mongolia and first described in 1981. The name means " imitator of Garuda ," a winged animal of the Indian mythology and is in the tradition that Ornithomimosauria are often called " copycat " ( - mimus ) of birds or winged creatures called. Type species and only known species is Garudimimus brevipes. The finds are dated to the early Cretaceous, the figures vary between the Coniacian and Santonian the (before about 89 to 83 million years ago).

System

Cladistic studies place Garudimimus developed to be higher than Pelecanimimus, Shenzhousaurus or Harpymimus ( for example, all still had teeth ), but basal than the Ornithomimidae, as their sister taxon he is. Sometimes the genus in its own monotypic family Garudimimidae is classified.