Mounted holotype in the Mongolian Natural History Museum during 2002 (note incorrect number of caudal vertebrae; only four are reported in the holotype)
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Clade:
Dinosauria
Clade:
Saurischia
Clade:
Theropoda
Clade:
†Ornithomimosauria
Clade:
†Macrocheiriformes
Superfamily:
†Ornithomimoidea
Genus:
†Garudimimus Barsbold, 1981
Type species
†Garudimimus brevipes
Barsbold, 1981
Garudimimus (meaning "Garuda mimic") is a genus of ornithomimosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous. The genus is known from a single specimen found in 1981 by a Soviet-Mongolian paleontological expedition in the Bayan Shireh Formation and formally described in the same year by Rinchen Barsbold; the only species is Garudimimus brevipes. Several interpretations about the anatomical traits of Garudimimus were made in posterior examinations of the specimen, but most of them were criticized during its comprehensive redescription in 2005. Extensive undescribed ornithomimosaur remains at the type locality of Garudimimus may represent additional specimens of the genus.
The only known specimen of Garudimimus was a medium-sized animal measuring nearly 3.5 m (11.5 ft) in length and weighing about 77.3–98 kg (170–216 lb). It was an ornithomimosaur with a mix of basal and derived features; unlike primitive ornithomimosaurs, both upper and lower jaws were toothless, a trait that is often reported in more derived ornithomimids. Garudimimus had relatively short and stocky hindlimbs, robust feet, and a reduced ilia. The foot had four toes with the first one very reduced, whereas ornithomimids were three-toed with the first toe lost. The toothless skull has very straight jaws ending in a more rounded snout tip than that of other genera. It was previously thought that this primitive ornithomimosaurian possessed a lacrimal "horn" at the top of the skull, in front of the eye socket. However, the redescription of the only specimen has shown that this structure was simply the distorted left prefrontal bone. Another early interpretation was the metatarsus reconstructed with an arctometatarsalian condition.
With the first description in 1981, Garudimimus was identified as a primitive ornithomimosaurian within its own family. However, with the description of new specimens of Deinocheirus in 2014, it was found that the latter was the sister taxon of Garudimimus, grouping within the Deinocheiridae—ornithomimosaurs not adapted for running or agile movements. But this placement has also been found to be unlikely. The pelvic girdle and hindlimbs of Garudimimus show that the musculature of the legs was not as well-developed as in the fast-running ornithomimids, therefore, indicating poor cursorial capacities. Like other members of Ornithomimosauria, Garudimimus was an omnivore/herbivore with a reduced bite force that was compensated by a horny beak.
Barsbold; the only species is Garudimimus brevipes. Several interpretations about the anatomical traits of Garudimimus were made in posterior examinations...
discovered complete skeletons of Deinocheirus, the type genus, as well as Garudimimus and Beishanlong, could be placed as a successive group, with Beishanlong...
Comparisons between the scleral rings of two ornithomimosaur genera (Garudimimus and Ornithomimus) and modern birds and reptiles indicate that they may...
primitive ornithomimosaurian, most closely related to the smaller genera Garudimimus and Beishanlong, together forming the family Deinocheiridae. Members...
paleofauna such as the medium-sized theropods Erlikosaurus and Segnosaurus, Garudimimus, and possibly Alectrosaurus; the heavy-built ankylosaurs Talarurus and...
just below Garudimimus. In 2014 Yuong-Nam Lee et al. recovered Beishanlong as a member of Deinocheiridae basal to a clade containing Garudimimus and Deinocheirus...
also retains the first pedal digit, which is also seen in Nqwebasaurus, Garudimimus, and Beishanlong. Serrano-Brañas and colleagues also noted that Paraxenisaurus...
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