Ornithomimosauria

Ornithomimosauria are theropod dinosaurs which bore a superficial resemblance to the modern-day ostrich. They were fast, omnivorous or herbivorous dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period of Laurasia, as well as possibly Africa. The group first appeared in the Early Cretaceous and persisted until the Late Cretaceous. Primitive members of the group include Nqwebasaurus, Pelecanimimus, Shenzhousaurus, Hexing and Deinocheirus, the arms of which reached 2.4 m (8 feet) in length. More advanced species, members of the family Ornithomimidae, include Gallimimus, Struthiomimus, and Ornithomimus. Some paleontologists, like Paul Sereno, consider the enigmatic alvarezsaurids to be close relatives of the ornithomimosaurs and place them together in the superfamily Ornithomimoidea.

Ornithomimosauria

Ballista User:Esv Sebastian Bergmann ケラトプスユウタ DEINO ★Kumiko★ Mike Beauregard Sergio Conti · CC BY 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
ornithomimosaurPBDB
Sits inside
TheropodaPBDB
Diet
herbivore, omnivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Environment
terrestrialPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 93 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 66 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 320 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 3 of 320 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 35 of 320 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 281 of 320 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 320 occurrences170–167 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences167–163 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences156–153 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences153–149 Mya — about 1 occurrence149–145 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences145–142 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences142–138 Mya — about 1 occurrence138–135 Mya — about 2 occurrences135–131 Mya — about 2 occurrences131–128 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 3 occurrences124–121 Mya — about 7 occurrences121–117 Mya — about 7 occurrences117–114 Mya — about 5 occurrences114–110 Mya — about 2 occurrences110–106 Mya — about 2 occurrences106–103 Mya — about 2 occurrences103–99 Mya — about 3 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 4 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 11 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 16 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 7 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 27 occurrences82–78 Mya — about 37 occurrences78–75 Mya — about 37 occurrences75–71 Mya — about 47 occurrences71–67 Mya — about 66 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 28 occurrences165.3 Mya72.2 Mya170 Mya64 Mya

320 occurrences of Ornithomimosauria 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

320 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

82 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°WBissekty — 42.12°N, 62.66°EHorseshoe 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°WHell 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°WBaynshire — 43.94°N, 101.33°EBaynshire — 44.35°N, 109.35°EBaynshire — 43.14°N, 107.52°EBaynshire — 43.50°N, 107.76°EBaynshire — 44.27°N, 109.91°EBaynshire — 44.18°N, 102.79°EBaynshire — 44.36°N, 109.35°EBaynshire — 43.61°N, 107.87°EBaynshire — 43.50°N, 107.71°EBaynshire — 44.30°N, 109.20°ELance — 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°WCerro del Pueblo — 25.52°N, 101.68°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°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°WAguja — 29.20°N, 103.55°WAguja — 29.10°N, 103.17°WAguja — 29.32°N, 103.52°WAguja — 29.34°N, 103.59°WOldman — 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°WIren 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°EFruitland — 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°ESevern — 38.91°N, 76.86°WSevern — 38.89°N, 76.85°WSevern — 38.96°N, 76.70°WTwo 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°WArundel Clay — 39.03°N, 76.87°WArundel Clay — 39.08°N, 76.87°WDjadokhta — 43.66°N, 100.90°EDjadokhta — 44.16°N, 103.69°EDjadokhta — 44.23°N, 103.30°EDenver — 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°W"Wonthaggi" — 38.54°S, 145.40°E"Wonthaggi" — 38.66°S, 145.68°E"Wonthaggi" — 38.56°S, 145.48°EMarshalltown — 40.30°N, 74.30°WMarshalltown — 39.55°N, 75.65°W

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The named rock units Ornithomimosauria has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 58 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ornithomimosauria and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

1,260 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 306 sites for Ornithomimosauria, 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

176 references

Each of the 320 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. 164 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 content1

Picture of Ornithomimosauria

Credit
Ballista User:Esv Sebastian Bergmann ケラトプスユウタ DEINO ★Kumiko★ Mike Beauregard Sergio Conti
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ornithomimosauria was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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 itTheropoda through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Barsbold 1976)