Episode 26 is all about Gallimimus, a dinosaur that was very similar to a chicken.
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In this episode, we discuss:
- The dinosaur of the day: Gallimimus, whose name means “chicken mimic”
- First found in the Gobi Desert in August 1963
- Gallimimus was named in 1972 by Halszka Osmólska, Ewa Roniewicz, and Rinchen Barsbold
- The name “mimus” comes from the fact that vertebral arch of its front neck looks similar to a Galliformes (Galliformes are an order of birds that feed on the ground, and include chickens, turkeys, and quails)
- Type species is Gallimimus bullatus
- Species name comes from Latin “bulla”, which one meaning refers to an amulet worn by ancient Roman boys as a protection against evil spirits. The Gallimimus bullatis is related because of the unusual capsule occurring in the base of it’s skull
- Holotype specimen has a partial skeleton (skull and lower jaws)
- Rinchen Barsbold almost named a second species of Gallimimus, called mongoliensis, but decided it was instead an unknown ornithomimid
- Lived in Mongolia; Late Cretaceous, 71-69 million years ago
- Found in Nemegt formation, which probably had diverse food, stream and river channels, mudflats, and shallow lakes
- Looked like big ostrich (with claws and tail)
- Similar to other dinosaurs: Pelicanmimus, Struthiomimus, Ornithomimus (pelican mimic, ostrich mimic, bird mimic)
- 26 feet long; 500 pounds, bipedal
- Had long legs, neck, and tail, and hollow bones
- Not sure how fast it could run (one source suggests 30 mph)
- Hollow bones to reduce weight, so less energy needed to run fast
- Lived on open arid plain, so easy to run
- Tail helped counterbalance and helped it make fast turns
- Had short arms, with three clawed fingers on each hand, and three clawed toes on each foot
- Had a small head, but a relatively large brain
- No teeth in its mouth
- Gallimimus may have had a beak like a modern duck, based on a discovery of by in 2001 Pete Mackavicky, from the Field Museum in Chicago (dinosaur had soft tissues in the skull, which showed traces of a beak along its jaw; the beak was probably composed of keratin); it also had a comb-like plate in the jaw, similar to the filter-feeding structure of a duck’s bill, which strains food from water and sediment
- According to Norwegian paleontologist Jørn Hurum, some of the bones in Gallimimus’s beak and lower jaw were very thin, only a fe millimeters
- Bottom of its beak was shaped like a shovel
- Rigid jaw, so could only really open and close mouth
- Not sure what it ate (small skull proportionately but long snout; may have used beak to pick up plants or small animals (lizards, snakes, mammals–but would have been hard to swallow, no teeth)
- Originally thought to have eaten small animals, but controversy over what it actually ate (omnivore or herbivore)
- May have used flexible arms to get fruit, catch and hold prey, and dig dirt
- If they hunted, they may have picked up small animal, thrown it to the ground; may also have stolen other dinosaurs’ eggs from nests
- Though it had a filter-feeding mechanims, so more likely it was an omnivore than herbivore (though similar beaks found in herbivorous sea turtles, and in Edmontosaurus
- Had eyes on opposite sides of its head
- Wide field of view (because of eyes on either side of head), so could easily spot threats, but did not have much depth perception, like other predators
- No binocular vision
- Fast runner; similar leg proportions to ostriches; good for catching prey and running away from Tarbosaurus
- One of the largest ornithomimosaurs
- Ornithomimids were one of the most common dinosaurs by the end of the Cretaceous
- Lots of Gallimimus bones found, juveniles and adults
- Juveniles about 0.5 meters tall at the hip, and adults 2 m tall at the hip
- May have had primitive downy feathers as juveniles (unclear as adults, though larger animals need fewer feathers for insulation)
- Not well known until Jurassic Park in 1993
- In Jurassic Park, more than 2 dozen Gallimimus stampede; crew filmed themselves pretending to run like Gallimimus to help them animate the scene
- Gallimimus was the only dinosaur in Jurassic Park that was completely CGI; may have also been in Jurassic Park III, as a decomposing embryo
- Gallimimus also appeared in Land Before Time (not the original); they are known in the movies as Rainbow Faces because they have striped beaks in the movie; first seen in Land Before Time VII
- Official description at http://www.palaeontologia.pan.pl/Archive/1972-27_103-143_29-53.pdf
- Ornithomimids have long arms, long necks, and long legs
- They lived in Asia and North America in the late Cretaceous
- Some species of ornithomimids may have been taller than T-rex
- Ornithomimids ate with gastroliths
- Another type of ornithomimid is Deinocheirus
- Fun fact: According to paleontologist Bhart-Anjan Bhullar, “There are between 10,000 and 20,000 species of birds alive today, at least twice as many as the total number of mammal species, and so in many ways it is still the Age of Dinosaurs”
