Timimus
| Timimus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous
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| Genus: | Timimus Rich & Vickers-Rich, 1993
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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
- Rich TH, Vickers-Rich P (2000). Dinosaurs of Darkness. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-496-4.
- Rich TH (1994). "Naming a new Genus & Species of Dinosaur on the basis of a Single Bone". Dinosaur Report: 10–11.
- Chinsamy A, Rich TH, Vickers-Rich P (1998). "Polar dinosaur bone histology". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 18 (2): 385–390. doi:10.1080/02724634.1998.10011066.
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