Struthiomimus

Skeletal reconstruction of Struthiomimus

• North America

Struthiomimus was a dinosaur genus from the group of Ornithomimosauria within the Theropoda. He lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now North America.

Features

Struthiomimus reached a length of approximately 4 meters and had the typical for all Ornithomimidae Build on. He moved away biped ( on hind legs ).

The head was built relatively small and light. The elongated snout was completely toothless and ended up in a horny beak. The large eyes sat side of the head. The neck was long and movable. The forelimbs were built relatively large, but weak. From other Ornithomimidae Struthiomimus be different due to the very long hands - the hand was longer than the upper arm bone or the skull. The hands ended in three fingers that long, but wore blunt claws. The hind legs were much longer than the forelimbs. The relatively thin bones and the extended lower leg suggest that this dinosaur could run very fast. The metatarsal bones were extended, the feet ending in three forward facing toes. The stiffened tail probably served the balance.

What is Struthiomimus malnourished, is not known. Studies in other Ornithomimosauriern up evidence of either a plant-based diet or a filtered intake of small organisms from the water. Big hands with the long claws may have been used in order to pull down the branches to enter the leaves or fruit. It is also conceivable an omnivorous diet.

Discovery and designation

The fossil remains of Struthiomimus were discovered in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in the Canadian province of Alberta. Lawrence Lambe described it in 1902 under the name Ornithomimus altus. Henry Fairfield Osborn established in 1917 thanks to new, better -preserved finds the new genus Struthiomimus. The name means ostrich imitators and plays on the similarities of these animals with the ratites to.

The finds are dated to the late Cretaceous ( Campanian to early Maastrichtian average ) to an age of around 80 to 69 million years.