Ornithomimus ("bird mimic") is a theropod dinosaur appearing in Disney's Fantasia. They are lanky, bipedal dinosaurs that resemble ostriches. They have beak-like mouths with a bird-like head and a long neck. They also have small clawed "hands", long hind legs, and a long tail.
Ornithomimus was a swift, bipedal dinosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous Period, about 76-66 million years ago in Western North America. Fossil evidence indicates that it was covered in feathers and equipped with a small toothless beak that may indicate an omnivorous diet. It is usually classified into two species: the type species, Ornithomimus velox, and a referred species, Ornithomimus edmontonicus. O. velox was named in 1890 by Othniel Charles Marsh on the basis of a foot and partial hand from the Denver Formation of Colorado. Another seventeen species have been named since then, though almost all of them have been subsequently assigned to new genera or shown to be not directly related to Ornithomimus velox. The best material of species still considered part of the genus has been found in Alberta, representing the species O. edmontonicus, known from several skeletons from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation.
A few Ornithomimus appear briefly in The Rite of Spring segment. They are first seen marching through a marsh and stopping for a drink of water. Some of them noticed the arrival of the Tyrannosaurus rex, and others, including a mother and her babies, are shown running out of the way of the T. rex before it fought the Stegosaurus.
Ornithomimus is one of the many dinosaurs that was originally planned for the film, but was cut for unknown reasons. However, its slightly larger relative Struthiomimus was included instead.
Ornithomimus were among the dinosaurs dwelling in Pellucidar. A flock of them were seen running along as a flock of Pteranodon swooped overhead. Samuel T. Philander later took pictures of the flock before the arrival of a mother Tyrannosaurus.
Animatronics of Ornithomimus were featured in the Ford Magic Skyway at the 1964New York World's Fair. When the Fair ended, they were incorporated into the Primeval World diorama and placed in a vignette where they drank from a shrinking watering hole in a desert, much like the ending of the Fantasia sequence.
These figures were replicated for the Universe of Energy attraction and placed in a scene where one had fallen into a bubbling mud pit while the other two looked on. When the attraction became Ellen's Energy Adventure, the mud pit effects were removed and the trapped dinosaur was recast as a creature playfully spitting water at guests from a marsh.
Ornithomimus was found to be feathered like ostriches. Large feathers much like those on an ostrich have been found on the arms and body. The legs were covered in bare skin from mid-thigh down to the feet.
Ornithomimus is thought to have been a herbivore based on gastroliths (stomach stones) found within and alongside skeletons.
