Timimus

Taxobox
name = "Timimus"
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Saurischia
subordo = Theropoda
infraordo = ?Ornithomimosauria
genus = "Timimus"
genus_authority = Rich & Vickers-Rich, 1993
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
* "T. hermani" Rich & Vickers-Rich, 1993 (type)

"Timimus" is a genus of small coelurosaurian theropod, which may have been an ornithomimosaur, known only from two fossilised upper leg bones found at Dinosaur Cove at the southern tip of Australia. The name "Tim's Mimic" was coined by the discoverers' son Tim and for Tim Flannery. It lived during the Albian faunal stage in the early Cretaceous, some 106 million years ago.

Discovery and species

The type species, "Timimus hermani", was formally described by Dr Thomas Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich in 1993, after two femora (thigh bones), one from an adult and one from a juvenile, were found within a metre of each other. Some vertebrae have also been attributed to this species.

In 1994 Dr Rich reported that while it was ideal to have the most complete specimen possible as a holotype, it was highly unlikely that future material of "Timimus" would be found, due to the limited nature of sites to be explored in the area. Also, the holotype had characteristics which both identified it as an ornithomimosaur and a new genus within that group. Thus the name would serve as a reference point for the material within paleontological literature.

"By themselves, the names of dinosaurs are like telephone numbers - they are labels that go with specimens and the ideas that flow from the analysis of the material. Confusing labels, like an inaccurate telephone book, lead to an unworkable system, so one must be careful in putting names or labels on things. But the act of doing so is not creating those specimens or the ideas associated with them; it is merely creating a convenient "handle" for purposes of communication." - T.H. Rich, 1994

Paleobiology

The slenderness of the bone suggest a lithe animal. In 1998, Anusuya Chinsamy, an expert on the microstructure of fossil bones, examined bone material from "Timimus" and "Leaellynasaura" and discovered they exhibited different bone histology. The hypsilophodontid showed a continuous rate of bone deposition, while the ornithomimosaur had a cyclical pattern of bone formation, which suggested "Timimus" may have hibernated in colder months.

References

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* [http://www.vertpaleo.org/jvp/18-385-390.html Online abstract of preceding article]

External links

* [http://www.alphalink.com.au/~dannj/timimus.htm Dann's Dinosaur Info: Timimus]