Laelaps has a post about an new ornithomimid dinosaur that was found in Mexico. Dubbed Tototlmimus packardensis, Mexico's "bird mimic", the animal lived about 72 million years ago. It was similar in size to Gallimimus, which could measure 2 m tall at the hip and 8 m long. Currently, it is known from pieces of its feet and hand bones. The original paper appeared in the journal Cretaceous Research.
North America has been a dinosaur hotspot for a century and a half. The Bone Wars of the 19th century, the Second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush of the early 20th, and the continuing profusion of new species and specimens all rely on the fossil riches held in the Mesozoic rocks of Canada and the United States. But the dinosaurs just to the south, in Central America, are only just now starting to stalk into the light. The latest to trot out into view is Tototlmimus, Mexico’s “bird mimic”.
For the moment, at least, the new dinosaur isn’t much to look at. Pieces of the feet and the hands are the only parts yet known. But paleontologist Claudia Inés Serrano-Brañas and colleagues make the case that these 72 million year old fragments really do represent a previously-unknown ornithomimid dinosaur that lived along the southern stretch of the long-lost subcontinent Laramidia. The articulation of the foot bones called metatarsals and the shape of one of the toe claws indicate that this dinosaur was an different from closely-related contemporaries that lived further north.
