One of the fastest dinosaurs
With its long legs it may have reached 30 miles an hour or more.
Feathered and unusual · Theropods
Gallimimus
Chicken mimic · GAL-ih-MIME-us
A tall, slender dinosaur shaped like an ostrich, with a long neck, a small toothless head and very long legs.
- Size
- About 6m long; 400kg
- Lived
- About 70 million years ago
- Found in
- Mongolia
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To scale
How big was it?
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Good to know
Six things about the gallimimus
An ostrich dinosaur
It belongs to a group called the ostrich mimics, which were built very like today's big running birds.
No teeth
Its beak was toothless. Comb-like ridges inside may have strained food from water.
Eyes on the sides
Its large eyes faced sideways, giving a wide view to watch for danger.
Feathered
Relatives have been found with feathers, including wing-like plumes on the arms of adults.
Safety in a flock
Related dinosaurs have been found in groups, young and old together.
The real thing
Photos of the gallimimus
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
What it ate
Probably plants, seeds, insects and small animals.
How we know
Several skeletons of different ages were found in Mongolia in the 1960s.
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