Advertisement.

EnchantedLearning.com is a user-supported site.
As a bonus, site members have access to a banner-ad-free version of the site, with print-friendly pages.
Click here to learn more.

ad
(Already a member? Click here.)


T. rex skull ZoomDinosaurs.com
Dinosaur
News
Go to a Gallimimus Fact Sheet
Gallimimus may have been a Filter Feeder
September 7, 2001

GallimimusGallimimus was an ostrich-like dinosaur that had a long tail. A new fossil find in Mongolia indicates that Gallimimus ate by sieving tiny bits of food (like small crustaceans, insects, and plant material) from mud and water in streams and ponds by using comb-like plates in its mouth (like a modern-day flamingo). This is the first time that this type of feeding structure has been found in a dinosaur.

Peter J. Makovicky, a vertebrate paleontologist with the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, USA, discovered the 70-million-year-old Gallimimus bullatus fossil in the Gobi Desert.

Ornithomimids: Gallimimus was an ornithomimid (bird-mimic) dinosaur, a group of dinosaurs that were ostrich-like but had a long tail. They had short arms with three clawed fingers on each hand, long legs with three clawed toes on each leg, and hollow bones. A long tail acted as a counterbalance and as a stabilizer during fast turns. Many ornithomimids swallowed stones that served as gastroliths (stomach stones), grinding up tough food like plants and hard-shelled animals. Early ornithomimid dinosaurs (ornithomimosaurs like Pelecanimimus) had hundreds of teeth, later versions (like Anserimimus) had only a few teeth, and the most advanced ornithomimids (like Gallimimus) had a toothless beak.

Gallimimus was a fast-running dinosaur with a very long, thin, flattened, toothless, horny beak, a small head, and a relatively large brain. The bottom front part of its beak was shaped like a shovel. It had large eyes positioned on opposite sites of its head, ruling out binocular vision (depth perception). It had a long neck, long tail, and long legs. Gallimimus was about 13-20 ft (4-6 m) long, was 6.3 ft (1.9 m) tall at the hips, and may have weighed about 970 pounds (440 kg).

Reference: Nature, Aug. 30, 2001.

RELATED LINKS
A page on the dinosaur Gallimimus.

A brief fact sheet on Gallimimus.

A page on the Cretaceous period, when Gallimimus lived.

Other fossils found in Asia.

Chart of geological time.




Enchanted Learning®
Over 35,000 Web Pages
Sample Pages for Prospective Subscribers, or click below

Overview of Site
What's New
Enchanted Learning Home
Monthly Activity Calendar
Books to Print
Site Index

K-3
Crafts
K-3 Themes
Little Explorers
Picture dictionary
PreK/K Activities
Rebus Rhymes
Stories
Writing
Cloze Activities
Essay Topics
Newspaper
Writing Activities
Parts of Speech

Fiction
The Test of Time

Biology
Animal Printouts
Biology Label Printouts
Biomes
Birds
Butterflies
Dinosaurs
Food Chain
Human Anatomy
Mammals
Plants
Rainforests
Sharks
Whales
Physical Sciences: K-12
Astronomy
The Earth
Geology
Hurricanes
Landforms
Oceans
Tsunami
Volcano
Languages
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Japanese (Romaji)
Portuguese
Spanish
Swedish
Geography/History
Explorers
Flags
Geography
Inventors
US History

Other Topics
Art and Artists
Calendars
College Finder
Crafts
Graphic Organizers
Label Me! Printouts
Math
Music
Word Wheels

Click to read our Privacy Policy

E-mail


Enchanted Learning Search

Search the Enchanted Learning website for:



Advertisement.

Advertisement.



Copyright ©2001-2018 EnchantedLearning.com ------ How to cite a web page