Timimus
Combines the name Tim (honoring both Timothy Rich, son of the discoverers, and paleontologist Tim Flannery) with Latin mimus ('mimic'), meaning 'Tim's mimic'
Timimus is a genus of small coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Australia. It was originally identified as an ornithomimosaur, but now it is thought to be a different kind of theropod, possibly a tyrannosauroid.
Under dispute
Timimus hermani was named by Rich and Vickers-Rich (1994) on an isolated femur and referred to Ornithomimosauria; its affinities have since been questioned, with a tyrannosauroid placement among the alternatives proposed. The single-element holotype is too fragmentary to resolve this.
Diagnosis
- Femur lacking an intercondylar groove on the extensor (anterior) surface
Species
Timimus hermani Rich & Vickers-Rich, 1994
Type species
Named for volunteer John Herman, who for many years assisted the Dinosaur Cove excavation project in southern Australia.
- Holotype
- NMV P186303 , Museum of Victoria Palaeontological Collection
- Material
- A left femur.
- Horizon
- Eumeralla Formation, Albian, Early Cretaceous , 113.2–100.5 million years ago
- Locality
- Dinosaur Cove East, Victoria, Australia
References
- Rich, T. H.; Vickers-Rich, P. (1994). Neoceratopsians and ornithomimosaurs: dinosaurs of Gondwana origin?. National Geographic Research and Exploration 10(1): 129-131. rich1994a