Labels:text | font | paper | screenshot | publication | document OCR: The only known member of its family, Avimimus ("bird mimic") seems to have been a birdlike, running dinosaur - a lightweight, long-legged creature, with a short, deep head, toothless beak, long, curved neck, well- developed tail, and short forelimbs. No fossil feathers have been found, but the rough ridge on one forearm bone resembles a modern bird's attachment for flight feathers. In the region equivalent to the human wrist, the fused bases of the upper hand bones suggest a forelimb ending very like a bird's. The Russian scientist who described A vimimus thought it could even fold its "wings" like a bird, but later fossil finds have also revealed that, unlike modern birds, Avimimus had a bony tail core. BIRDLIKE SPRINTER Scientists believe that Avimimus shared open plains with harmless dinosaurs, such as the ornithomimid ("bird mimic") Gallimimus and the sauropod ("lizard-footed" dinosaur) Quaesitosaurus, as well as with dangerous enemies related to Deinonychus. It is likely that Avimimus sprinted on its long legs after small animals, darting its head down to seize them in its beak. The beak's partly ridged rim would have gripped wriggling prey too firmly for it to escape. An alternative idea is that A vimimus was a herbivore (plant-eater) that used its beak for biting off and eating plants. CONFLICTING THEORIES The creature's forelimbs were probably too short to serve as wings. If feathered, they may have served simply to keep the body warm, although another theory suggests that Avimimus might have used them for trapping flying insects. One scientist, however, believes that details of its skull and arm bones imply that Avimimus could take off and fly short distances. If so, "bird mimic" represents a line of flying dinosaurs quite separate from birds. However, most scientists discount this possibility. Some, though, do suspect that many small theropods ("beast-footed" dinosaurs) had a covering of feathers that have left no fossil traces. (Feather impressions survive only in extremely fine-grained rocks, like the limestone that bears the imprints of Archaeopteryx's wings and tail.)
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