(dro-miss-ee-o-MY-mus)

This dinosaur belonged to the family of ornithomimids (ostrich dinosaurs). They were called this because they looked like ostriches with a long tail and no feathers. Unlike most other dinosaurs, ornithomimids were very fast. Nothing could catch them. At full speed, Dromiceiomimis was quicker than a galloping horse. It had a long slender neck and a large head.

Althrough about 12 feet long, its thin, light bones gave it a weight of only 220 pounds. Its neck was long and slender, supporting a large head with a big brain and huge eyes. They had no teeth, but each foot had three toes. Each hand had three spindly fingers, each with a tiny claw.

Dromiceiomimus means "emu mimic." It was named this because it looked like an emu. The dinosaur was in the same family as Ornithomimus and Struthiomimus. Unless surprised while feeding, it is unlikely that the Dromiceiomimus was easy prey. It probably fed on seeds, small eggs, insects, or other pickings in woods and on plains. If disturbed, it would lift up its stiff tail, raise its head, and run quickly to safely.

Dromiceiomimus lived at the end of the great ace of dinosaurs. Members of the ornithomimid family spanned 100 million years, from mid-Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous period. Most ornithomimids lived during the middle to late Cretaceous era. They represent the end of a long line of ostrich dinosaurs that began with the coelophysids in the late Triassic. The most famous coelophysid was Coelophysis, which weighed less than one-third the weight of Dromiceiomimus.