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Concept
Garudimimus
Summary
Garudimimus (meaning "Garuda mimic") 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 Bayan Shireh 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.
The only known specimen of Garudimimus was a medium-sized animal measuring nearly in length and weighing about . It was an ornithomimosaur with a mix of basal and derived features; unlike primitive ornithomimosaurs, both upper and lower jaws were toothless, a trait that is often reported in more derived ornithomimids. Garudimimus had relatively short and stocky hindlimbs, robust feet, and a reduced ilia. The foot had four toes with the first one very reduced, whereas ornithomimids were three-toed with the first toe lost. The toothless skull has very straight jaws ending in a more rounded snout tip than that of other genera. It was previously thought that this primitive ornithomimosaurian possessed a lacrimal "horn" at the top of the skull, in front of the eye socket. However, the redescription of the only specimen has shown that this structure was simply the distorted left prefrontal bone. Another early interpretation was the metatarsus reconstructed with an arctometatarsalian condition.
With the first description in 1981, Garudimimus was identified as a primitive ornithomimosaurian within its own family. However, with the description of new specimens of Deinocheirus in 2014, it was found that the latter was the sister taxon of Garudimimus, grouping within the Deinocheiridae—ornithomimosaurs not adapted for running or agile movements.
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