The Ornithomimosaur Thread

Adam Khor

It seems that an expedition to the same spot where the original Deinocheirus specimen was discovered found a few other bones which bear bite marks of a large large predator, explaining why so little of Deinocheirus was found; it is nothing but the leftovers of a delicious meal for a tyrannosaur, most likely Tarbosaurus.
Sadly this means that there's little chance of finding more of the same specimen and that we can only hope for another specimen to be found somewhere else.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667112000572

Galvasean

Damn you Tarbosaurus, gobbling up all the evidence!

Rubecula

Ha ha ha.

But of course Tarbosaurus was merely a big scavenger. :P

*Goes and hangs his head in shame*

Galvasean

I'm sure most of you were expecting this news sooner or later.

A trio of Ornithomimus skeletons have finally confirmed what paleontologists expected. Zelenitsky enthusiastically explained the details to me by phone earlier this week. In 1995, when Zelenitsky was a graduate student, paleontologists uncovered an articulated Ornithomimus with weird marks on its forearms. No one knew what they were. But in 2008 and 2009 a juvenile and an adult Ornithomimus turned up with preserved tufts of filamentous feathers. “When we found these specimens,” Zelenitsky said, “we made the link to the 1995 dinosaur.” All those strange marks on the arms of the previously discovered Ornithomimus, Zelenitsky and colleagues argue, are traces of longer, shafted feathers.

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosaur/2012/10/feathery-ostrich-mimics-enfluffle-the-dinosaur-family-tree/

How long before the 'big guy' (you know the one I'm talking about...) 'comes out' of the feathered dinosaur closet?


Art by Julius Csotonyi.

3ndahalfof6

It was not his power, he smothered them to death.

Adam Khor

Most awesome news, the first feathered dinos from the New World! It is very fitting that it was Ornithomimus itself.

Galvasean

I remember hearing about a featherless ornithomimosaur skin impression ages ago, so maybe feathers were a seasonal thing.

Rubecula

A sauropod, a big one, covered in massive fluffy feathers would have been an incredible sight. I wonder if there is any chance of a TV show "Walking with Possibly Feathered Beasties Of the Past"

Or could our resident artists draw something along those line? If it walked on land, Feather It

Capt'n Midnight

Rubecula wrote: »

A sauropod, a big one, covered in massive fluffy feathers would have been an incredible sight.

Something that size wouldn't need feathers to stay warm.

Whales have problems keeping cool, their blubber is more an energy store than insulation.

Adam Khor

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Something that size wouldn't need feathers to stay warm.

Whales have problems keeping cool, their blubber is more an energy store than insulation.

Maybe not for insulation but for display? Its hard to believe but on the other hand, there's evidence that some land crocodylomorphs probably had whiskers. In a world in which crocs have whiskers, sauropods could easily have feathers or feather-like ornaments as well.

Adam Khor

http://www.metronews.ca/news/ottawa/2016/09/21/carleton-student-discovers-new-ostrich-like-dinosaur.html


Was supossedly misclassified as Struthiomimus altus for 80 years. I'm always skeptical about "new species" found along with very similar, already established ones. The differences don t seem that big...

Adam Khor

But it's just a foot, really.
http://www.arkansasmatters.com/news/local-news/its-official-new-arkansas-dinosaur-named/1058934863

Adam Khor

Study suggests it was about eight years old at the moment of death, and almost fully grown at around 3 meters long.

http://www.eartharchives.org/articles/rativates-dinosaur-park-formation-s-fourth-ostrich-mimic/?platform=hootsuite

Rubecula

interesting. wonder if they are accurate in age/size/maturity?

Adam Khor

I suppose they can never be a hundred per cent accurate, but it seems reasonable enough considering what we know about other dinosaurs. T. rex, for example, is believed to have reached its full size at age 18 or so. It makes sense that Rativates being a much smaller animal would need less than half this time to finish its growing. Modern day ostriches reach sexual maturity at around 3 or 4 years old.

Adam Khor

Paraxenisaurus, a new deinocheirid ornithomimosaur from northern Mexico- first of its kind found outside of Asia.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0895981120301231