Open Paleo

Harpymimus

Barsbold & Perle, 1984 HAR-pi-MIEM-us

From Greek harpyia (Harpy, a winged spirit of Greek mythology) and mimos (mimic); meaning 'Harpy mimic'

113.2–100.5 million years ago Albian, Early Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous stages

Harpymimus is a genus of basal ornithomimosaurian theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period of what is now Mongolia. Unlike later, more derived ornithomimosaurs, Harpymimus still possessed teeth, although they appear to have been restricted to the dentary of the lower jaw.

Under dispute

The family-level placement of Harpymimus is unresolved. Most analyses recover it as a basal ornithomimosaur lying outside the two families and more derived than Pelecanimimus (Kobayashi and Barsbold, 2005; Lee and colleagues, 2014), whereas Serrano-Brañas and colleagues (2020) and Hattori and colleagues (2023) recover it as the basalmost member of Deinocheiridae. It is placed conservatively at Ornithomimosauria.

Diagnosis

  1. Eleven dentary teeth, restricted to the anterior portion of the dentary.
  2. Transition between anterior and posterior caudal vertebrae at the eighteenth caudal vertebra.
  3. Triangular-shaped depression on the dorsal surface of the supraglenoid buttress of the scapula.
  4. Low ridge dorsal to that depression, along the posterior edge of the scapular blade.
  5. Small but deep collateral ligament fossa on the lateral condyle of metacarpal III.

Species

Harpymimus okladnikovi Barsbold & Perle, 1984

Type species

Named for Alexey Pavlovich Okladnikov, a Soviet archaeologist, in whose honor the species was dedicated.

Holotype
IGM 100/29 , Paleontological Center, Mongolian Academy of Sciences
Material
Nearly complete skeleton, missing parts of the pectoral girdles, pelvic girdles, and hindlimbs.
Horizon
Khuren Dukh Formation, Albian, Early Cretaceous , 113.2–100.5 million years ago
Locality
Khuren Dukh, Dundgovi, Mongolia Kobayashi and Barsbold (2005) name the unit the Shinekhudug Formation, which Ito and colleagues (2006) renamed the Khuren Dukh for its type locality. Neither paper gives the holotype's own site.

References

  1. Barsbold, R.; Perle, A. (1984). The first record of a primitive ornithomimosaur from the Cretaceous of Mongolia. Paleontological Journal 1984(2): 118-120. barsbold1984a
  2. Kobayashi, Y.; Barsbold, R. (2005). Anatomy of Harpymimus okladnikovi Barsbold and Perle 1984 (Dinosauria; Theropoda) of Mongolia. The Carnivorous Dinosaurs (Carpenter, K., ed.) 97-126. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.

    Redescription of the holotype IGM 100/29; provides a self-contained amended diagnosis and detailed anatomy, independent of Kobayashi's 2004 thesis.

    kobayashi2005b
  3. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Theropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate.

    jones2026c
  4. Lee, Y. N.; Barsbold, R.; Currie, P. J.; Kobayashi, Y.; Lee, H. J.; Godefroit, P.; Escuillié, F. O.; Chinzorig, T. (2014). Resolving the long-standing enigmas of a giant ornithomimosaur Deinocheirus mirificus. Nature 515(7526): 257-260. doi:10.1038/nature13874

    Recovered Harpymimus as a basal ornithomimosaur outside the two families.

    lee2014a
  5. Serrano-Brañas, C. I.; Espinosa-Chávez, B.; Maccracken, S. A.; Gutiérrez-Blando, C.; de León-Dávila, C.; Ventura, J. F. (2020). Paraxenisaurus normalensis, a large deinocheirid ornithomimosaur from the Cerro del Pueblo Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Coahuila, Mexico. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 101. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.jsames.2020.102610

    Recovered an alternative phylogenetic placement for Harpymimus among deinocheirids.

    serrano-brañas2020a
  6. Hattori, S.; Shibata, M.; Kawabe, S.; Imai, T.; Nishi, H.; Azuma, Y. (2023). New theropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Japan provides critical implications for the early evolution of ornithomimosaurs. Scientific Reports 13(1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-40804-3

    Recovered Harpymimus as the basalmost member of Deinocheiridae.

    hattori2023a
  7. Ito, M.; Matsukawa, M.; Saito, T.; Nichols, D. J. (2006). Facies architecture and paleohydrology of a synrift succession in the Early Cretaceous Choyr Basin, southeastern Mongolia. Cretaceous Research 27(2): 226-240. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2005.11.005 ito2006a
  8. Gates, T. A.; Tsogtbaatar, K.; Zanno, L. E.; Chinzorig, T.; Watabe, M. (2018). A new iguanodontian (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Early Cretaceous of Mongolia. PeerJ 6: e5300. PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.5300

    Places the Harpymimus type material in the same Khuren Dukh beds as Altirhinus.

    gates2018a