Dinosaur: Tyrannomimus

Introduction:

Tyrannomimus is an extinct ornithomimosaurian theropod from the Kitadani Formation of Japan. This dinosaur’s name translates to ‘Tyrant Mimic‘ because of its similarities with the bone structure of tyrannosauroids. This is because both Tyrannosauroids and Ornithomimosaurian are part of the same Clade, Theropod.

Tyrannomimus is one of the only ornithomimosaurian discovered in Japan and even in ornithomimosaurian group, it is was the earliest ever species of the family, Deinocheiridae which gave rise to the gigantic Deinocheirus. Tyrannomimus was a very important discovery in filling up the gaps in the evolution of Deinocheiridae and answers how to its lineage evolved into larger sizes. Now, that we know some of the preliminary details, let move on to some more in-depth knowledge for this amazing ornithomimosaurian!!

Discovery:

Tyrannomimus was found from the Kitadani Formation by many different paleontologists as isolated remains. Later on Dr. Soki Hattori and colleagues wrote a paper where they analyzed the phylogenetics and described it as Tyrannomimus fukuiensis. Tyrannomimus is a very recent discovery and thus the studies and research on this species is a lot lower than some other, older species but this discovery helped in filling the gaps in Deinocheiridae and showed that the species started to rise from Early Cretaceous.

Surprisingly, this dinosaur was just described in 2023, very recent although the fossils are very fragmentary and not even remotely completely but the fossils are very different and clear that we can accurately categorize where the dinosaur belonged and that is a blessing for this very new dinosaur!!

Biology:

While the name must sound gigantic but in actuality, Tyrannomimus was fairly small when compared with other, more larger ornithomimosaurian. It being only 1 meter (3.3 feet) in height and 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) in length, it is definitely one of the more smaller ornithomimosaurian but this dinosaur’s lineage would evolve into much greater, and larger dinosaur ever. Most people think that all theropods are carnivores but that is exactly not true. It would have most probably been on a diet of plants and insects and maybe, very occasionally, carcass meat in smaller quantities. It’s like all carnivores are theropods but not all theropods are carnivores.

As for ecology in prehistoric Japan at that time was a lot warmer and drier than modern day and it would have lived alongside sauropods like Fukuititan, ornithopods like Fukuisaurus and Koshisaurus, and theropods like Fukuiraptor, Fukuivenator and Fukuipteryx alongside many other creatures as well.

And that is all there is to know about Tyrannomimus, as this is a new dinosaur, I have not been able to find any merch of it and if you want me to make an art of Tyrannomimus, you can commission me on Fiverr or a dinosaur art of your own. I also posted a whole list of Dinosaurs in Japan, make sure to check out that post too. I hope to see you again soon on other posts in Prehistoric Pedia!!!