Struthiomimus: Ostrich-like Dinosaur

Struthiomimus can be considered the ostrich of the dinosaur world. This tall, lightly built omnivore lived during the late Cretaceous Period in present-day Alberta, Canada. Fossils of this dinosaur were unearthed in Alberta covered in a layer of ash, suggesting that the animals were killed in a forest fire.

Struthiomimus was bipedal and was a member of the lizard-hipped family of dinosaurs, standing about four and a half feet tall at the hips. Unlike predacious therapods that lived around the same time, struthiomimus had longer legs with a long, slender neck and tiny head. The long legs were likely powerful and could have carried the dinosaur along at great speeds. This could have helped it chase down fast-moving prey like small mammals and reptiles but it was likely a primary defense measure. Struthiomimus was very slight in the way of a defensive arsenal and had no horns, sharp claws, thick hide, or armored tail. Therefore running would have been this dinosaur's strongest asset, especially from fast-moving therapods like deinonychus. Looking at the morphology of the leg bones of struthiomimus, it is estimated that the dinosaur could have sprinted between 30 and 50 miles per hour.