Avimimus Portentosus Skull Fossil

Description

Avimimus Portentosus Skull Fossil Replica measures 3 inches or 7.6cm. Avimimus Portentosus Skull Fossil is museum quality polyurethane cast. 1:1 Scale, Made in USA. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). Our precise skull can be used as a teaching tool, museum skull exhibit, home décor skull, or office décor skull.

Avimimus Portentosus was a diminutive 5 ft. dinosaur with ostrich like features in part. Avimimus meaning “bird mimic” is a genus of oviraptorosaurian theropod dinosaur, named for its bird like characteristics, that lived in the late Cretaceous around 85 to 70 million years ago.

Avimimus Portentosus was a small, bird like dinosaur with a length of 5 ft. The skull was small compared to the body, though the brain and eyes were large. The size of the bones which surrounded the brain and were dedicated to protecting it are large. This is also consistent with the hypothesis that Avimimus had a proportionally large brain.

The jaws were thought to form a parrot like beak lacking teeth, and a thorough review of the holotype specimen’s anatomy confirmed that no teeth were preserved, although a series of tooth-like projections along the tip of the premaxilla were.

However, subsequently discovered specimens have been reported to preserve small premaxillary teeth. The small teeth or possible lack thereof in Avimimus suggests that it may have been an herbivore or omnivore. Kurzanov himself, however, believed that Avimimus was an insectivore.

The foramen magnum, the hole allowing the spinal cord to connect with the brain, was proportionally large in Avimimus. The occipital condyle, however, was small, further suggestive of the skull’s relative lightness.

The neck itself was long and slender, and is composed of vertebrae that are much more elongate than in other oviraptorosaurs. Unlike oviraptorids and caenagnathids, the back vertebrae lack openings for air sacs, suggesting that Avimimus Portentosus is more primitive than these animals.

Avimimus Portentosus forelimbs were relatively short. The bones of the hand were fused together, as in modern birds, and a ridge on the ulna (lower arm bone) was interpreted as an attachment point for feathers by Kurzanov. Kurzanov, in 1987, also reported the presence of quill knobs, and while Chiappe confirmed the presence of bumps on the ulna, their function remained unclear.

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Avimimus Portentosus Facts:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Genus: Avimimus
Family: Avimimidae
Species: Avimimus portentosus