Sinornithomimus

Skull of Sinornithomimus dongi

  • China

Sinornithomimus is a dinosaur genus from the group of Ornithomimosauria within the Theropoda. He lived during the early Cretaceous in what is now East Asia.

Features

Sinornithomimus resembled in his body the other representatives of the Ornithomimidae: it was a slender, lightly built dinosaur, the biped was moving along ( on hind legs ). The small, lightly built skull sat on a long neck. The snout was elongated and provided at the top with a horned beak like all Ornithomimidae he was toothless. The large eyes sat side of the head. The forelimbs were built relatively large, but weak. The hands wore three fingers that were blunt claws. The hind legs were longer than the front legs, the lower leg and the metatarsus extended. The foot had three toes forward projecting. From other Ornithomimdae it differs in details in the skull structure as an indentation in the parietal bone.

Paleobiology

Due to the construction of the hind legs is thought that Sinornithomimus could run fast. In the reference, the remains of at least 14 animals, including a striking number (11 ) pups were. In the young animals the tibia relative to the femur was shorter, thus they have probably not yet reached the speed of adult animals. The finding suggests that these dinosaurs at least temporarily lived together in groups - possibly for protection from predators. They should all be together, perhaps, perished by a natural disaster.

In the abdominal cavity of these animals gastroliths (stomach stones) were discovered. The position of gastroliths within the hull could indicate that the dinosaurs have similar today herbivorous birds possessed a gizzard and stomach have swallowed stones for better crushing the food. This discovery is an indication that these animals may have been herbivores.

Discovery and designation

The fossil remains of Sinornithomimus were found in the Ulansuhai formation in Inner Mongolia ( China) and first described in 2003. The name means "Chinese bird mimic " and is a reference to Ornithomimus, the first known representative of the Ornithomimosauria. Type species and only described species is Sinornithomimus dongi. The finds are dated to the early Late Cretaceous ( Turonian ) on an age of 94 million to 90 million years. Thus, this dinosaur one of the older representatives of Ornithomimidae.

731925
de