Timeline Of Ornithomimosaur Research
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This timeline of ornithomimosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the
history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
of
paleontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...
focused on the
ornithomimosaurs Ornithomimosauria ("bird-mimic lizards") are theropod dinosaurs which bore a superficial resemblance to the modern-day ostrich. They were fast, omnivorous or herbivorous dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period (geology), Period of Laurasia (now Asia ...
, a group of
bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
-like
theropods Theropoda (; from ancient Greek , (''therion'') "wild beast"; , (''pous, podos'') "foot"">wiktionary:ποδός"> (''pous, podos'') "foot" is one of the three major groups (clades) of dinosaurs, alongside Ornithischia and Sauropodom ...
popularly known as the
ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised, the common ostrich, native to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa. They are the heaviest and largest living birds, w ...
dinosaurs. Although fragmentary, probable, ornithomimosaur fossils had been described as far back as the 1860s, the first ornithomimosaur to be recognized as belonging to a new family distinct from other theropods was '' Ornithomimus velox'', described by
Othniel Charles Marsh Othniel Charles Marsh (October 29, 1831 – March 18, 1899) was an American professor of paleontology. A prolific fossil collector, Marsh was one of the preeminent paleontologists of the nineteenth century. Among his legacies are the discovery or ...
in
1890 Events January * January 1 – The Kingdom of Italy establishes Eritrea as its colony in the Horn of Africa. * January 2 – Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer in the White House. * January 11 – 1890 British Ultimatum: The Uni ...
. Thus the ornithomimid ornithomimosaurs were one of the first major
Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...
theropod Theropoda (; from ancient Greek , (''therion'') "wild beast"; , (''pous, podos'') "foot"">wiktionary:ποδός"> (''pous, podos'') "foot" is one of the three major groups (clades) of dinosaurs, alongside Ornithischia and Sauropodom ...
groups to be recognized in the
fossil record A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
. The description of a second ornithomimosaur
genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
did not happen until nearly 30 years later, when
Henry Fairfield Osborn Henry Fairfield Osborn, Sr. (August 8, 1857 – November 6, 1935) was an American paleontologist, geologist and eugenics advocate. He was professor of anatomy at Columbia University, president of the American Museum of Natural History for 25 y ...
described '' Struthiomimus'' in
1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's ...
. Later in the
20th century The 20th century began on 1 January 1901 (MCMI), and ended on 31 December 2000 (MM). It was the 10th and last century in the 2nd millennium and was marked by new models of scientific understanding, unprecedented scopes of warfare, new modes of ...
, significant ornithomimosaur discoveries began occurring in
Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
. The first was a bonebed of "''Ornithomimus''" (now '' Archaeornithomimus'') ''asiaticus'' found at Iren Debasu. More Asian discoveries took place even later in the 20th century, including the disembodied arms of '' Deinocheirus mirificus'' and the new genus '' Gallimimus bullatus''. The formal naming of the Ornithomimosauria itself was performed by Rinchen Barsbold in
1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...
. Early research into ornithomimosaur
evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
was based on
comparative anatomy Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny (the evolution of species). The science began in the classical era, continuing in t ...
. In
1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...
,
Dale Russell Dale Alan Russell (27 December 1937 – 21 December 2019) was an American-Canadian geologist and palaeontologist. Throughout his career Russell worked as the Curator of Fossil Vertebrates at the Canadian Museum of Nature, Research Professor at ...
argued that the
Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...
''
Elaphrosaurus ''Elaphrosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of ceratosaurian Theropoda, theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 154 to 150 million years ago during the Late Jurassic, Late Jurassic Period in what is now Tanzania in Africa. ''Elaphrosaurus'' was a medium- ...
'' of
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
was an ancestral relative of ornithomimids. The descriptions of '' Garudimimus'' and '' Harpymimus'' in the
1980s File:1980s replacement montage02.PNG, 335px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, ''Space Shuttle Columbia, Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union, Soviet General Secretary of the Communist Party of ...
revealed the existence of primitive ornithomimosaurs outside of the Ornithomimidae proper. Subsequent research and discoveries during the
1990s File:1990s decade montage.png, From top left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth after it was launched in 1990; American jets fly over burning oil fields in the 1991 Gulf War; the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993; the World ...
refined science's knowledge of ornithomimosaur evolution. In
1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...
, '' Pelecanimimus polyodon'' was described from
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
, the first known ornithomimosaur from that continent and apparently a very evolutionarily primitive
taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...
. From the late 1990s into the early
21st century The 21st century is the current century in the ''Anno Domini'' or Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It began on 1 January 2001, and will end on 31 December 2100. It is the first century of the 3rd millennium. The rise of a ...
cladistic Cladistics ( ; from Ancient Greek 'branch') is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is ...
evidence mounted against Russell's hypothesis that ornithomimosaurs were descended from a close relative of ''Elaphrosaurus'', and favored an ancestry close to ''Pelecanimimus''. Paleontologists found that within the theropod family tree, ornithomimosaurs were primitive coelurosaurs closely related to, but outside of, the maniraptorans. The juxtaposition of apparent evolutionary affinities to
carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose nutrition and energy requirements are met by consumption of animal tissues (mainly mu ...
dinosaurs with the possession of toothless beaks has led to controversy among paleontologists trying to reconstruct the diet of ornithomimosaurs. Osborn hypothesized in 1917 that ornithomimosaurs may have eaten
plants Plants are the eukaryotes that form the kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to produce sugars f ...
,
social insects Eusociality (Greek 'good' and social) is the highest level of organization of sociality. It is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care (including care of offspring from other individuals), overlapping generations with ...
, or aquatic invertebrates. In the
1970s File:1970s decade montage.jpg, Clockwise from top left: U.S. President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office following the Watergate scandal in 1974; The United States was still involved in the Vietnam War ...
paleontologists Russell, Halszka Osmolska, and her colleagues considered ornithomimosaurs carnivores that may have fed on
insects Insects (from Latin ') are hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed ...
, small
vertebrates Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...
, or
egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...
s. In the early to mid 1980s, however Russell and Elizabeth Nicholls began advocating a reinterpretation of ornithomimosaurs as herbivores. With the
1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...
report of gastroliths in the new genus '' Sinornithomimus'', came further support for reinterpreting ornithomimosaurs as
herbivores A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat ...
or filter feeders rather than carnivores. In
2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...
, Mark Norell reported a comb-like structure in the beak of ''Gallimimus'' that may have been used for filter feeding, bringing renewed credibility to one of Osborn's 1917 hypotheses. If this interpretation of the evidence is correct, ''Gallimimus'' would be the largest terrestrial filter feeder in history.


19th century


1860s

1865 *
Joseph Leidy Joseph Mellick Leidy (September 9, 1823 – April 30, 1891) was an American paleontologist, parasitologist and anatomist. Leidy was professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, later becoming a professor of natural history at Swarth ...
described the new species '' Coelosaurus antiquus''.


1890s

1890 *
Othniel Charles Marsh Othniel Charles Marsh (October 29, 1831 – March 18, 1899) was an American professor of paleontology. A prolific fossil collector, Marsh was one of the preeminent paleontologists of the nineteenth century. Among his legacies are the discovery or ...
described the new genus and species '' Ornithomimus velox''. He also described the new species '' Ornithomimus tenuis'' and erected a new family to house them, the Ornithomimidae. 1892 * Marsh described the new species '' Ornithomimus sedens''.


20th century


1900s

1902 * Lawrence Lambe described the new species '' Ornithomimus altus''.


1910s

1917 *
Henry Fairfield Osborn Henry Fairfield Osborn, Sr. (August 8, 1857 – November 6, 1935) was an American paleontologist, geologist and eugenics advocate. He was professor of anatomy at Columbia University, president of the American Museum of Natural History for 25 y ...
reported the discovery of a more complete "''Ornithomimus''" ''altus'' specimen in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. He erected a new genus, '' Struthiomimus'', for this species. Osborn put forth early speculations on the diet of ornithomimosaurs. He considered three possible diets: plants, social insects, and aquatic invertebrates.


1920s

1920 * Charles Whitney Gilmore described the new species '' Coelosaurus affinis''. 1926 * William Arthur Parks described the new species '' Struthiomimus brevitertius''. 1928 * Parks described the new species '' Struthiomimus samueli''.


1930s

1933 * Gilmore described the new species '' Ornithomimus asiaticus''. This was the first known ornithomimosaur to be discovered in Asia. The remains of multiple individuals were recovered from a bonebed at Iren Dabasu. * Parks described the new species '' Struthiomimus currelli''. * Parks described the new species '' Struthiomimus ingens''. * Sternberg described the new species ''
Ornithomimus edmontonicus ''Ornithomimus'' (; "bird mimic") is a genus of Ornithomimosauria, ornithomimid Theropoda, theropod dinosaurs from the Campanian and Maastrichtian ages of Late Cretaceous Laramidia, Western North America. ''Ornithomimus'' was a swift, bipedal din ...
''.


1960s

1960 * Lapparent described the new species '' Elaphrosaurus gautieri''. 1965 * ''July:'' The type specimen of the dinosaur that would later be named Deinocheirus mirificus was discovered by Polish–Mongolian Palaeontological Expedition in Mongolia.


1970s

1970 * Osmolska and Roniewicz, and Barsbold described the new genus and species '' Deinocheirus mirificus''. 1972 * Russell published a review of the Late Cretaceous ornithomimids from North America. He also described the new genus ''
Dromiceiomimus ''Dromiceiomimus'' is a genus of ornithomimid theropod from the Late Cretaceous (early Maastrichtian) of Alberta, Canada. The type species, ''D. brevitertius'', is considered a synonym of ''Ornithomimus edmontonicus'' by some authors, while othe ...
'' and classified two different species therein. * Russell described the new genus '' Archaeornithomimus''. * Russell regarded a Late Jurassic theropod from Tanzania called ''Elaphrosaurus bambergi'' to be a primitive ornithomimosaur. This species would later be shown to be a coelophysoid. * Russell concluded based on ornithomimid pelvic and leg anatomy that they could achieve similar running speeds to modern ostriches, but would not have been as maneuverable. He also observed that since the ornithomimosaur pelvic canal is wide compared to that of other dinosaur groups they may have laid only a few large eggs or even gave birth to live young. * Ostrom "tentatively" classified the mysterious ''Deinocheirus mirificus'' as an ornithomimosaur. * Osmolska, Roniewicz, and Barsbold described the new genus and species '' Gallimimus bullatus''. * Osmolska and others interpreted ornithomimosaurs as carnivores due to their membership in the theropoda, however, because of their beaked jaws were toothless he felt that only the smallest vertebrates and insects were suitable as prey. He also thought that ornithomimosaurs may have supplemented their diets with eggs. * Osmolska and others suggested that ornithomimosaurs could use their forearms to dig. * Russell interpreted ornithomimosaurs as carnivores due to their membership in the theropoda, however, because of their beaked jaws were toothless he felt that only the smallest vertebrates and insects were suitable as prey. He also thought that ornithomimosaurs may have supplemented their diets with eggs. 1976 * Barsbold formally named the Ornithomimosauria.


1980s

1981 * Barsbold described the new genus and species '' Garudimimus brevipes''. He added the family Garudimimidae to the ornithomimosaurs. * Nicholls and Russell concluded that ''Dromiceiomimus'' was the same as ''Ornithomimus'' after all. * Nicholls and Russell that ornithomimosaurs had little ability to rotate their forearms. This is evidence against the idea that ornithomimosaurs could use their arms to rake or dig. They also thought the first and second digits were somewhat opposable. The researchers concluded that ornithomimosaurs could use their arms to "gras branches and fern fronds." 1982 * A paper by Galton and others accepted Russell's opinion that the Late Jurassic theropod ''Elaphrosaurus bambergi'' of Tanzania was a primitive ornithomimosaur. This species would later be shown to be a coelophysoid. 1984 * Barsbold and Perle described the new genus and species '' Harpymimus okladnikovi''. Barsbold and Perle added the family Harpymimidae to the ornithomimosauria. 1985 * Nicholls and Russel noted similarities in the beaks of ornithomimosaurs and modern ratite birds and suggested that ornithomimosaurs may have shared the birds' herbivorous diet. * Nicholls and Russell enumerated a list of anatomical traits shared by Deinocheirus and ornithomimosaurs. * DeCourten and Russell reported a second specimen of ''Ornithomimus velox'' to the scientific literature, this one from the Kaiparowits Formation in Utah. 1988 * Barsbold described the new genus and species '' Anserimimus planinychus''. * Paul tentatively regarded ''Deinocheirus'' as an ornithomimosaur.


1990s

1990 * Barsbold and Osmolska performed the first phylogenetic analysis of the internal evolutionary relationships of ornithomimosaurs. They also noted that unlike modern ratite birds, the tip of an ornithomimosaur's beak has a "deep edge". Barsbold and Osmolska further observed that ornithomimosaur remains were more common in wetter environments like Iren Debasu and Dinosaur Park Formation than more arid regions. * Smith and Galton proposed a redefinition of the ornithomimidae that would include all taxa then regarded as ornithomimosaurian. Most scientists did not follow this suggestion, however. * Thulborn noted that estimates for ornithomimosaur running speeds puts them between 35 and 60 km/h. 1991 * Yacobucci performed a cladistic analysis of ornithomimosaurs. 1993 * Currie and Eberth suggested that some fossils once thought to belong to ''Archaeornithomimus'' were actually ''Garudimimus'' remains. They also noted that some fossil eggs discovered at Iren Debasu in China may have been laid by ornithomimosaurs. However, without ornithomimosaur skeletal remains of either adults who could have laid the eggs or embryos inside them there is no solid evidence for this proposal. * Sankar Chatterjee described the new genus and species '' Shuvosaurus inexpectatus''. He interpreted the unusual reptile as the world's oldest and most primitive ornithomimosaur. 1994 * Perez-Moreno and other researchers described the new genus and species '' Pelecanimimus polyodon''. The species was the first known ornithomimosaur from Europe. The researchers performed a cladistic analysis to uncover its evolutionary relationship with ''Garudimimus'' and ''Gallimimus'', finding it to be more primitive than either one. IT was so primitive that it retained teeth. The tip of its jaws were filled 220 tiny teeth. The researchers interpreted these teeth as acting like a "cutting and ripping blade". They also debunked the idea that ''Garudimimus brevipes'' had a horn on its nose. * Rich and Vickers-Rich described the new genus and species '' Timimus hermani''. 1995 * Nessov described the new species '' Archaeornithomimus bissektensis''. 1997 * Rauhut rejected Sankar Chatterjee's claim that ''Shuvosaurus inexpectatus'' of Late Triassic Texas was the world's oldest and most primitive ornithomimosaur because the anatomy of its braincase and palate were inconsistent with that of an ornithomimosaur. * Osmolska published on ornithomimosaur evolutionary relationships. 1998 * Sereno proposed a radical redefinition of the Ornithomimosauria as a stem based clade including all dinosaurs more closely related to ''Ornithomimus'' than to ''Shuuvuia''. This definition would have vastly expanded the membership of Ornithomimosauria to not only include the ostrich dinosaurs but the alvarezsaurs and therizinosaurs as well. * Taquet and Russell noted commonalities in the teeth of ''Pelecanimimus polyodon'' with those of spinosaurids and proposed that it may actually be a member of that group rather than an ornithomimosaur. This reclassification met with little support. 1999 * Padian and other researchers published a paper noting that Paul Sereno's revised definition of the Ornithomimosauria was basically the same as that of a clade proposed in 1996 by Thom Holtz called the Arctometatarsalia. Padian and the others proposed a new redefinition of Ornithomimosauria as the node based clade including those dinosaur descended from the most recent common ancestor shared by Pelecanimimus and Ornithomimus. This definition preserved the classification of the traditional ostrich dinosaurs as members. * Paul Sereno performed a cladistic analysis which concluded that ''Elaphrosaurus bambergi'' of Late Jurassic Tanzania was actually a coelophysoid rather than a primitive ornithomimosaur as interpreted by Russell. He also drew some conclusions regarding ornithomimosaur biogeography, noting that they apparently crossed the Bering land bridge less readily than hadrosaurs and pachycephalosaurs during the Cretaceous. * Kobayashi and others reported the discovery of gastroliths in the dinosaur that would later be named ''Sinornithomimus''. The presence, abundance, and size of the gastroliths were all similar to those of modern herbivorous and filter feeding birds. Likewise there was no evidence for vertebrate prey in the diet of ''Sinornithomimus'', which could have come in the form of bone fragments or apatite in the sediments enclosing the gastroliths. The remains of multiple individuals were recovered from a bonebed in Ulansuhai.


21st century


2000s

2001 * Thom Holtz performed another cladistic analysis which concluded that ''Elaphrosaurus bambergi'' of Late Jurassic Tanzania was actually a coelophysoid rather than a primitive ornithomimosaur as interpreted by Russell. * Norell and others performed a cladistic analysis of the Coelurosauria. The researchers included five ornithomimosaur taxa in this analysis. * Norell and others reported a comb-like structure in the beak of ''Gallimimus'' that may have been used for filter feeding. If so, it would be the largest terrestrial filter feeder in history. They also observed that ornithomimosaurs seem to have been rare or absent in relatively dry paleoenvironments, like that of the
Djadokhta Formation The Djadochta formation (sometimes transcribed and also known as Djadokhta, Djadokata, or Dzhadokhtskaya) is a highly fossiliferous geological formation in Central Asia, Gobi Desert, dating from the Late Cretaceous period, about 75 million ...
. * Jørn H. Hurum published a detailed description of a complete lower jaw bone from '' Gallimimus bullatus''. He noted new features in the "paper thin" jaw and corrects minor mistakes made in previous reconstructions of the lower jaw of ''G. bullatus''. Hurum suggests that a "large widening of the
anterior Standard anatomical terms of location are used to describe unambiguously the anatomy of humans and other animals. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position pro ...
end of the prearticular" is an
apomorphy In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel Phenotypic trait, character or character state that has evolution, evolved from its ancestral form (or Plesiomorphy and symplesiomorphy, plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy sh ...
for ''Gallimimus bullatus''. He also notes that the tight intramandibular joint would prevent any movement in the front and rear portions of the lower jaw. 2002 * Xu and others performed a cladistic analysis of the Coelurosauria. The researchers included five ornithomimosaur taxa in this analysis. 2003 * Ji and other researchers described the new genus and species '' Shenzhousaurus orientalis''. The researchers also performed a cladistic analysis of coelurosaur evolutionary relationships, including ornithomimosaurs. * Kobayashi and Lu described the new genus and species '' Sinornithomimus dongi''. * Kobayashi and Lu performed a cladistic analysis including all ornithomimosaurs then recognized, with the exception of ''Shenzhousaurus''. 2006 * The Korea-Mongolia International Dinosaur Project discovered a new specimen of the mysterious Mongolian dinosaur Deinocheirus, specimen now catalogued as MPC-D 100/128. This specimen had also been damaged by fossil poachers. 2009 * Buffetaut, Suteethorn, and Tong described the new genus and species '' Kinnareemimus khonkaenensis''. * The Korea-Mongolia International Dinosaur Project discovered another specimen of ''Deinocheirus''. This specimen is now catalogued as MPC-D 100/127. Like the 2006 Deinocheirus find, MPC-D 100/127 also been damaged by fossil poachers, who stole its skull, hands, and feet. The stolen specimens were later found to have been sold to a Japanese collector, who then resold the fossils to a German collector.


2010s

2010 * Makovicky and others described the new genus and species '' Beishanlong grandis''. 2011 * French fossil dealer François Escuillié noticed some unusual fossils kept by a private collector in Europe. He alerted Belgian paleontologist Pascal Godefroit about the strange finds. Godefroit realized that these fossils might be those poached from the Deinocheirus specimens recently excavated by the joint Korean-Mongolian team in the Gobi Desert. He contacted the researchers and it was found that the strange, privately owned fossils fit together with the 2009 specimen like puzzle pieces. The collector was willing to part with the specimens after being informed of their scientific value. After obtaining the specimens, Escuillié donated them to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences where Godefroit worked. * ''May 1st:'' Escuillié and Godefroit returned the recovered poached Deinocheirus remains to the Mongolian government. * Xu and others described the new genus and species '' Qiupalong henanensis''. 2012 * Jin, Chen and Godefroit described the new genus and species '' Hexing qingyi''. 2014 * Yuong-Nam Lee and others described the life appearance and paleobiology of Deinocheirus, characterizing it as follows:
2015 * Serrano-Brañas and others described the new genus and species '' Tototlmimus packardensis''. * Alifanov and Saveliev describe the new theropod dinosaur, '' Lepidocheirosaurus natatilis'' from the Upper Jurassic deposits of the Transbaikal Area, Russia. 2017 * Tsogtbaatar and others described the new genus and species ''
Aepyornithomimus tugrikinensis ''Aepyornithomimus'' (meaning "''Aepyornis'' mimic") is a genus of ornithomimidae, ornithomimid theropoda, theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Djadokhta Formation in Mongolia. It lived in the Campanian, around 75 million years ago, when th ...
''. * Sereno described the new genus and species '' Afromimus tenerensis''. 2018 * Hunt and Quinn described the new genus and species '' Arkansaurus fridayi''. 2019 * Description of an ornithomimid specimen UALVP 16182, putatively assigned to the genus ''
Dromiceiomimus ''Dromiceiomimus'' is a genus of ornithomimid theropod from the Late Cretaceous (early Maastrichtian) of Alberta, Canada. The type species, ''D. brevitertius'', is considered a synonym of ''Ornithomimus edmontonicus'' by some authors, while othe ...
'', and a study on the validity of this genus is published by Macdonald &
Currie Currie is a village and suburb on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland, situated south west of the city centre. Formerly within the County of Midlothian, it now falls within the jurisdiction of the City of Edinburgh Council. It is situated be ...
(2019).


2020s

2020 * Serrano-Brañas and others describe ''Paraxenisaurus normalensis'', the first deinocheirid ornithomimosaur from the Cerro del Pueblo Formation of Coahuila, Mexico. 2022 * Tsogtbaatar and others describe ornithomimosaur materials from the Upper Cretaceous Santonian Eutaw Formation of Appalachia. * Nottrodt describes the first articulated ornithomimid remains found from the Scollard Formation, TMP 1993.104.1, which represent a juvenile specimen, extending the stratigraphic range of ''Ornithomimus'' within Alberta. * Allian and others describe the Berriasian age Angeac-Charente Lagerstätte of France, which is dominated by an ornithomimosaur herd of at least 70 individuals.


See also

*
History of paleontology The history of paleontology traces the history of the effort to understand the history of life on Earth by studying the fossil record left behind by living organisms. Since it is concerned with understanding living organisms of the past, paleont ...
** Timeline of paleontology * Timeline of oviraptorosaur research * Timeline of therizinosaur research


Footnotes


References

* * * * * * * * * * *


External links

* {{Portal bar, Dinosaurs, Paleontology, History of science Ornithomimosauria Ornithomimosaur ornithomimosaur