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Garudimimus

Barsbold, 1981 gah-ROOD-i-MIEM-us

Garuda mimic; named after Garuda, the divine bird from Hindu and Buddhist mythology, combined with Latin mimus (mimic)

93.9–83.6 million years ago Turonian–Santonian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Garudimimus is a genus of ornithomimosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous. The genus is known from a single specimen found in 1981 by a Soviet-Mongolian paleontological expedition in the Bayanshiree Formation and formally described in the same year by Rinchen Barsbold; the only species is Garudimimus brevipes. Several interpretations about the anatomical traits of Garudimimus were made in posterior examinations of the specimen, but most of them were criticized during its comprehensive redescription in 2005. Extensive undescribed ornithomimosaur remains at the type locality of Garudimimus may represent additional specimens of the genus.

Diagnosis

  1. Jaw articulation positioned more posteriorly than the postorbital bar (quadrate mandibular condyle behind the postorbital bar), making the posterior edge of the skull nearly vertical.
  2. Paired fossae at the base of the dorsal process of the supraoccipital, absent in other ornithomimosaurs.
  3. Paired depressions on the lateral surface of the neural spines at the base of the proximal caudal vertebrae.
  4. Deep groove at the proximal end of the lateral surface of pedal phalanges III-1 and III-2.

Species

Garudimimus brevipes Barsbold, 1981

Type species

From Latin 'brevis' meaning 'short' and 'pes' meaning 'foot', referring to the short metatarsus of the holotype specimen.

Holotype
GIN 100/13 , Paleontological Center, Mongolian Academy of Sciences
Material
Nearly complete skeleton, missing the pectoral girdle, forelimbs, and posterior caudal vertebrae.
Horizon
Bayanshiree Formation, Turonian–Santonian, Late Cretaceous , 93.9–83.6 million years ago
Locality
Baishin Tsav, Ömnögovi, Mongolia

References

  1. Barsbold, R. (1981). Bezzubyye khishchnyye dinozavry Mongolii [Toothless carnivorous dinosaurs of Mongolia]. Sovmestnaia Sovetsko-Mongol'skaia Paleontologicheskaia Ekspeditsiia Trudy 15: 28-39. barsbold1981a
  2. Kobayashi, Y.; Barsbold, R. (2005). Reexamination of a primitive ornithomimosaur, Garudimimus brevipes Barsbold, 1981 (Dinosauria: Theropoda), from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 42(9): 1501-1521. Canadian Science Publishing. doi:10.1139/e05-044

    Comprehensive redescription of the holotype; provides an emended diagnosis and shows Barsbold's 1981 original diagnostic characters are symplesiomorphies.

    kobayashi2005a
  3. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Theropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate, and the appearance features.

    jones2026c