Gallimimus Facts for Kids
gal-ih-MY-mus · its name means “chicken mimic”
A long-legged, ostrich-like dinosaur built for running.
- 📏 20 ft6 m1 long
- ⚖️ weight: not yet checked
- 🕰️ the Cretaceous
- 🍽️ plants and animals
Gallimimus had long legs and a long neck. It looked a bit like an ostrich. It could run very fast.
Gallimimus had a small head with a toothless beak, a long neck, and long legs for running. Its name means chicken mimic, because its neck bones reminded scientists of a chicken's.
Gallimimus belongs to the ostrich-mimic dinosaurs, which were built for speed with light, hollow bones. Scientists are not sure what it ate; its beak may have worked for plants, seeds, insects or small animals.
Every dinosaur number is scientists’ best guess from bones, so each one says where it came from.
How big was Gallimimus?
Gallimimus in numbers
| Length (nose to tail) | 20 ft6 m1scientists' estimate |
|---|---|
| Height at the hips | no checked number yet |
| Weight | no checked number yet |
| When it lived | no checked number yet |
| What it ate | plants, seeds and maybe small animals |
| Fossils found in | the Gobi Desert in Mongolia |
| What kind | a theropod: a two-legged dinosaur, the group birds came from |
Wow!
- It had a beak and no teeth.
- Its name means chicken mimic.
- Its light, hollow bones helped it run fast.
🦴 Gallimimus’s bones
Books about Gallimimus, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about Gallimimus for free.
Where was the land back then?
The continents were in different places when Gallimimus lived, in the Cretaceous. Open Planet Earth, pick Drifting continents, and slide back in time to see where the land was.
Its neighbours in time
Where these numbers come from
- Wikidata, from the Natural History Museum's Dino Directory, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Gallimimus (Q309467), checked 30 October 2026.
To read more: the Natural History Museum’s Dino Directory (see also, not copied).