Ornithomimus: Pursuing the Bird-Mimic Dinosaur

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Ornithomimus was a two-metre-tall ostrich-like dinosaur that lived in
North America more than 74 million years ago. Its name means “bird
mimic” because it was small (for a dinosaur), two legged, and
light-boned. Some scientists believe the ornithomimus is a direct
ancestor of modern birds. In July 1995, a team of palaeontologists from
the Royal Tyrrell Museum discovered some exciting new dinosaur bones in
Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta. They were identified as belonging
to an ornithomimus and this book documents how those bones were
recovered and what people now know about this long-extinct creature.

Like the first volume in the Discoveries in Palaeontology series, the
text combines straight scientific reporting with a fictional account of
what life was like in Cretaceous-era Alberta. The fictional segment,
titled “Bird-Mimic Chronicles,” follows a small clan of
ornithomimids as they hunt, mate, and struggle for survival. Nearly
every page bursts with photographs and illustrations, and even the
occasional humorous drawing such as a pair of apprehensive ornithomimids
sitting for a family portrait with a smiling T-Rex standing behind them.
This book is definitely a must-have for serious dinosaur buffs, young
and old. Highly recommended.