Ornithomimidae

Ornithomimidae is a family of theropod dinosaurs which bore a superficial resemblance to modern ostriches. Ornithomimids were cursorial, omnivorous or herbivorous dinosaurs known mainly from the Late Cretaceous Period of Laurasia, though they have also been reported from the Lower Cretaceous Wonthaggi Formation of Australia.

Ornithomimidae

Sebastian Bergmann from Siegburg, Germany · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
ornithomimidPBDB
Sits inside
OrnithomimosauriaPBDB
Diet
herbivore, omnivorePBDB, for Ornithomimosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Ornithomimosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Ornithomimosauria
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Ornithomimosauria

Time the record covers

At least 49 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 143.1 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 0 of 259 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 11 of 259 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 248 of 259 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 259 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–134 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences134–131 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences131–129 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences129–126 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences126–123 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 2 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 2 occurrences118–115 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences113–110 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences110–107 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences105–102 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences102–99 Mya — about 2 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 2 occurrences97–94 Mya — about 2 occurrences94–91 Mya — about 14 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 9 occurrences89–86 Mya — about 3 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 12 occurrences83–80 Mya — about 25 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 25 occurrences78–75 Mya — about 25 occurrences75–72 Mya — about 25 occurrences72–70 Mya — about 43 occurrences70–67 Mya — about 45 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 19 occurrences121.4 Mya72.2 Mya145 Mya64 Mya

259 occurrences of Ornithomimidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

259 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

56 formations

Nemegt — 43.60°N, 100.46°ENemegt — 43.44°N, 100.37°ENemegt — 43.53°N, 101.04°ENemegt — 43.54°N, 99.60°ENemegt — 43.87°N, 100.01°ENemegt — 44.07°N, 102.67°ENemegt — 43.50°N, 101.05°ENemegt — 43.47°N, 99.83°ENemegt — 43.76°N, 99.90°ENemegt — 43.48°N, 100.36°ENemegt — 43.85°N, 100.14°ENemegt — 43.32°N, 99.83°ENemegt — 43.82°N, 99.98°ENemegt — 43.50°N, 100.33°EDinosaur Park — 50.73°N, 111.53°WDinosaur Park — 50.82°N, 111.57°WDinosaur Park — 50.75°N, 111.48°WDinosaur Park — 50.60°N, 111.62°WDinosaur Park — 50.77°N, 111.41°WDinosaur Park — 49.96°N, 110.34°WDinosaur Park — 50.72°N, 111.56°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.62°N, 112.87°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.54°N, 112.87°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.69°N, 112.91°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.95°N, 112.90°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.94°N, 112.96°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.75°N, 112.96°WHorseshoe Canyon — 50.79°N, 111.59°WHorseshoe Canyon — 51.40°N, 112.59°WHorseshoe Canyon — 53.45°N, 113.55°WBissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°EHell Creek — 45.95°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.10°N, 103.30°WHell Creek — 46.38°N, 103.96°WHell Creek — 46.36°N, 103.90°WHell Creek — 45.94°N, 103.95°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 107.32°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 107.00°WHell Creek — 46.09°N, 100.63°WHell Creek — 46.24°N, 107.38°WHell Creek — 45.00°N, 103.19°WHell Creek — 46.00°N, 103.19°WLance — 43.12°N, 104.64°WLance — 43.23°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.13°N, 104.07°WLance — 43.37°N, 104.70°WLance — 45.48°N, 104.19°WLance — 45.71°N, 102.05°WLance — 45.93°N, 103.92°WLance — 43.49°N, 104.46°WAguja — 29.20°N, 103.55°WAguja — 29.10°N, 103.17°WAguja — 29.32°N, 103.52°WAguja — 29.34°N, 103.59°WKirtland — 36.31°N, 108.05°WKirtland — 36.15°N, 107.92°WKirtland — 36.29°N, 108.10°WKirtland — 36.30°N, 108.19°WKirtland — 36.51°N, 108.32°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.57°N, 101.33°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.54°N, 101.36°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.62°N, 101.05°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.67°N, 101.30°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.39°N, 100.96°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.51°N, 101.66°WBaynshire — 43.94°N, 101.33°EBaynshire — 44.35°N, 109.35°EBaynshire — 43.50°N, 107.76°EBaynshire — 44.18°N, 102.79°EBaynshire — 44.36°N, 109.35°EBaynshire — 44.30°N, 109.20°EOldman — 50.77°N, 111.49°WOldman — 50.81°N, 111.63°WOldman — 50.60°N, 111.62°WOldman — 50.90°N, 111.80°WOldman — 50.72°N, 111.48°WOldman — 50.86°N, 111.14°WFerris — 41.94°N, 106.88°WFerris — 41.80°N, 107.00°WFerris — 41.96°N, 106.89°WFruitland — 36.26°N, 108.26°WFruitland — 36.27°N, 108.24°WFruitland — 36.18°N, 108.21°WBostobe — 45.95°N, 64.65°EBostobe — 45.55°N, 64.41°EIren Dabasu — 43.83°N, 112.43°EIren Dabasu — 43.74°N, 112.18°EIren Dabasu — 43.73°N, 112.02°EIren Dabasu — 43.74°N, 112.11°ETwo Medicine — 48.63°N, 113.75°WTwo Medicine — 48.97°N, 112.65°WTwo Medicine — 48.91°N, 112.64°WTwo Medicine — 48.61°N, 109.68°WTwo Medicine — 47.99°N, 112.28°WCloverly — 44.98°N, 108.32°WCloverly — 45.45°N, 108.14°WDenver — 39.68°N, 105.10°WDenver — 39.79°N, 105.02°WDenver — 39.93°N, 105.04°WDenver — 39.62°N, 104.04°WFruitland/Kirtland — 36.29°N, 108.10°WFruitland/Kirtland — 36.34°N, 108.26°WDjadokhta — 43.66°N, 100.90°EDjadokhta — 44.16°N, 103.69°EDjadokhta — 44.23°N, 103.30°EJudith River — 47.77°N, 108.95°WJudith River — 46.47°N, 109.30°WJudith River — 46.46°N, 109.41°WWapiti — 55.08°N, 119.53°WWapiti — 55.07°N, 118.69°WWapiti — 55.26°N, 118.51°W"Wonthaggi" — 38.66°S, 145.68°E"Wonthaggi" — 38.53°S, 145.37°E"Wonthaggi" — 38.56°S, 145.48°EScollard — 51.95°N, 111.67°WScollard — 51.92°N, 112.93°WScollard — 52.08°N, 112.98°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ornithomimidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 32 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 10 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ornithomimidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Ornithomimidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

918 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 252 sites for Ornithomimidae, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

132 references

Each of the 259 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 120 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Ornithomimidae

Credit
Sebastian Bergmann from Siegburg, Germany
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Ornithomimidae indet. · dmnh:epv:150680

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itOrnithomimosauria through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Marsh 1890