Gallimimus
...backNamed after a chicken
- Name: Gallimimus
- Pronounced: Gal-lee-meem-us
- Period: Late cretacous
- Name means: Chicken mimic
- Length: 6 m (20 ft)
- Weight: 500 kg (1,100 lb)
- Location: Mongolia
Gallimimus was an ornithomimosaur which lived in the late cretaceous period. With it's long slender legs and long tail it's likely to have been one of the fastest dinosaurs to have existed.
The name gallimimus comes from it's resemblance to modern day birds, particularly the neck bones. It's discoverers were aware of dinosaurs which had already been named 'ostrich mimic' and 'emu mimic', leading them to their choice.
With a long, tootless beak with a blunt end, it is not known for certain what gallimimus ate, but it would probably be a mixture of vegetation and small prey.
"Gallimimus was named 'chicken mimic' becuase of the similarity of the bones in it's neck. Not because it kept crossing roads."
