Rare Ostrich-Like Dinosaur Fossil Discovered on Canadian Island

A fossil of an Ornithomimosaurus has been discovered in Canada. This dinosaur, belonging to the theropod group, lived during the Cretaceous period and resembled modern ostriches with its long legs, long neck, slender body, toothless beak, and relatively small head. Some species, such as Gallimimus and Ornithomimus, could grow to over 4 meters (13 feet) in length. Although classified as theropods, ornithomimosaurs are believed to have been omnivorous or opportunistic feeders, consuming plants, small animals, and possibly eggs. They were likely among the fastest dinosaurs of their time, with estimated top speeds of around 50-60 km/h (31-37 mph).

In a recent paper, Dr. David Evans, a paleontologist at the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum, and his colleagues described a fossilized tail vertebra of an ornithomimosaur. The fossil dates back to the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous period, between 80 and 75 million years ago. The specimen was collected in August 1999 from marine sediments of the Cedar District Formation on Denman Island, part of the Nanaimo Group in western Canada.

“To date, this fossil represents the second reported occurrence of dinosaur skeletal material from the Nanaimo Group, and the first from an outcrop in Canada,” the paleontologists wrote in the paper. They hypothesize that the Ornithomimosaur bone may have drifted into the sea from the ancient western coast of North America, possibly carried by currents, coastal transport, or even scavengers. Another possibility is that it originated from a floating carcass that drifted offshore before its body parts detached.

“Based on current interpretations of the paleolatitude of the Nanaimo Basin, the specimen is likely paleolatitudinally equivalent to the Two Medicine and Judith River formations to the east, part of the northern dinosaur fauna province of the Laramidian Campanian along the Western Interior Seaway,” the researchers wrote. “To date, ornithomimosaur remains identifiable to a lower taxonomic level have not been described from the Judith River and Two Medicine formations, although a rich Ornithomimidae fauna is known from the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta with species in several genera known from complete skeletons.”

The discovery of the 80-million-year-old tail bone fossil on Denman Island, Canada, proves the existence of ostrich-like dinosaurs on the Pacific coast.