Ostrich was once a dinosaur! Would you like to meet the grandparents of the ostrich? Let’s discover five great Gallimimus facts for kids.
The Gallimimus were the largest dinosaur family member of the Ornithomimid family of dinosaurs. Ornithomimid translates to “bird feet” and you can probably guess why. Yes, that’s right the Gallimimus dinosaur had bird-like feet. They could grow up to 6 metres long and they had extremely long heads and necks. Gallimimus is pronounced as “Gall – ih – My – Mus.” Gallimimus was the longest and biggest of the ostrich type dinosaurs. The name Gallimimus means “chicken mimic”.It got this name from its bird-like features. The fossils have shown quills in the bones of its arms where feathers would have attached to. These wings would not have been large or strong enough to fly though, no matter how fast gallimimus could run!
The Gallimimus is thought to have been one of the fastest of all dinosaurs. Scientists estimate that the Gallimimus was able to reach a top speed of about 40 miles an hour. Palaeontologists also believe that this dinosaur could have run faster but its arms and long tails would have slowed it down a lot. It is likely that the Gallimimus would have been a difficult prey to catch.
Gallimimus had large round eyes at the sides of the head. This means that they did not have binocular vision, which is when you use both eyes to create one image. The Gallimimus could see two separate images at the one time, meaning they are able to see what is happening behind them at the same time as seeing what was in front of them. This may make you feel quite dizzy but for the Gallimimus it allowed them to see their predators attacking from behind.
It is thought that the Gallimimus was an omnivore, meaning it ate both plants and animals. The Gallimimus was a toothless dinosaur. The Gallimimus’ diet would have consisted of small dinosaurs, insects and animals such as lizards that it would have grabbed with its beak and swallowed whole and also of plants and ferns it could chomp on.
Fossils of the Gallimimus have been found in Mongolia in the Gobi desert and Asia. During this time the Gobi desert would have been much more tropical with wide rivers and lakes. The Gallimimus fossil was first found in 1964 by Polish palaeontologist Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska in 1964. The expedition found both adult and juvenile Gallimimus.
We hope you enjoyed learning more things about Gallimimus as much as we loved teaching you about them. Now that you know how majestic this dinosaur is, you can move on to learn about other dinosaurs like: Apatosaurus, Velociraptor, Ankylosaurus and Brontosaurus.
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