FACT SHEET: Gallimimus

FACT SHEET: gallimimus

NAME: GALLIMIMUS (GAL-ee-MY-mus), meaning: “Chicken Mimic” SIZE: 15 feet long, 6 feet tall (the size of a school bus), weighed 970 pounds TYPE OF DIET: Omnivore (plant leaves, lizards, bugs, worms) WHEN: Late Cretaceous period (75 million years ago) WHERE: Mongolia (Asia), Western Canada

Gallimimus is a very well-known dinosaur because so many of its fossils have been found. It lived about 75 million years ago. Gallimimus was a funny-looking dinosaur. Its name means “chicken mimic”, and it really did look like a large chicken! Gallimimus was the largest of the ornithomimosaurs, a group of bird-like dinosaurs. It was about 15 feet long and 6 feet tall, which is much bigger than a chicken! It had a very long neck and tail. The lower jaw looked like a shovel. Gallimimus walked on two long, thin legs. It was one of the fastest dinosaurs ever, able to run about 40 mph. Its bones were hollow, like a bird’s, which made it light and agile. Its long tail was very useful to balance it while running. Gallimimus could also whip the tail around to make sharp turns. Gallimimus didn’t have any armor, spikes or frills to weigh it down. It was also a fairly intelligent dinosaur. It had a large space in its skull for a brain. It did not have very good eyesight. It probably couldn’t see what was food and what wasn’t. With its bottom jaw, Gallimimus would scoop up everything around it, including rocks, dirt and mud. It used its arms to feel around for food. When it found another dinosaur’s eggs, it probably scooped them up with its hands and cracked them open with its hard beak. Gallimimus may have been an omnivore, meaning that it ate both plants and meat. Gallimimus lived in hot, dry places like deserts. We don’t know whether Gallimimus lived alone or moved around in herds. The fossils that have been found are of single creatures.