Outline: a typical theropod
Aepyornithomimus
"elephant bird mimic"
- Lived
- 84 to 72 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Ornithomimidae
- Found in
- Mongolia
- Named by
- Chinzorig et al. 2017
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Field notes
About Aepyornithomimus
What it was like
Aepyornithomimus was an ornithomimid, a toothless, ostrich-like theropod. It is known only from a foot.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Mongolia. It comes from the Djadokhta Formation, a dry land of dunes shared with Velociraptor, Protoceratops and the oviraptorids Oviraptor and Citipati. It is the first ornithomimid found in those rocks, and suggests some could live in drier places.
How it was found
Chinzorig and colleagues named Aepyornithomimus in 2017.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Ornithomimidae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: T. Chinzorig, Y. Kobayashi, and K. Tsogtbaatar, P. J. Currie, M. Watabe, R. Barsbold. 2017. First ornithomimid (Theropoda, Ornithomimosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous Djadokhta Formation of Tögrögiin Shiree, Mongolia. Scientific Reports 7(1):5835:1-14