Outline: a typical theropod
Harpymimus
"harpy mimic"
- Lived
- 110 to 101 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Length
- about 2 m (7 ft)
- Group
- Theropods, Deinocheiridae
- Found in
- Mongolia
- Named by
- Barsbold and Perle 1984
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical theropod shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
105 million years ago
Field notes
About Harpymimus
What it was like
Harpymimus was an early ostrich-like dinosaur about 2 meters (7 feet) long, with long legs, a long neck and a small head. Unlike its later relatives, which had toothless beaks, it still had a few small teeth at the front of its lower jaw.
It probably ate plants, insects and small animals.
Its world
It lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now Mongolia. Its bones come from the Khuren Dukh Formation, where it shared the land with Psittacosaurus, the iguanodont Altirhinus and the dome-headed Zavacephale.
How it was found
Barsbold and Perle named Harpymimus in 1984, from a single partial skeleton with a skull.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Deinocheiridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: R. Barsbold and A. Perle. 1984. The first record of a primitive ornithomimosaur from the Cretaceous of Mongolia. Paleontological Journal 1984(2):118-120