Kinnareemimus is an extinct genus of ornithomimosaurian theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous (Valanginian to Early Hauterivian, 133.6 and 132 million years ago) of Thailand. It was quite basal in comparison to other ornithomimosaurs.
| Kinnareemimus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous | |
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| An artist's (Brian Engh) reconstruction of Kinnareemimus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Clade: | †Ornithomimosauria |
| Genus: | †Kinnareemimus Buffetaut, 2009 |
| Species: | †K. khonkaenensis |
| Type species | |
| †Kinnareemimus khonkaenensis Buffetaut, 2009 | |
Discovery[]
Kinnareemimus was first discovered in the early 1990s, in the Early Cretaceous Sao Khua Formation at Phu Wiang, Khon Kaen Province. The uncovered remains were relatively incomplete, consisting mainly of vertebrae, partial pubic bones, metatarsals, and an incomplete fibula. In 2009, Eric Buffetaut, Varavudth Suteethorn, and Haiyan Tong published their description of a new genus and species of ornithomimosaur, Kinnareemimus khonkaenensis, being named in honor of Kinnaree, which were graceful beings of Thai mythology resembling women with the legs of birds.
Paleobiology[]
Not much was known about Kinnareemimus itself, however we do know details of the environment in which the ornithomimosaur lived in. Being from the Sao Khua Formation, which represented a humid subtropical floodplain environment, Kinnareemimus coexisted with multiple taxa of dinosaurs, however most haven't been fully described or are potentially dubious. Predatory dinosaurs of the Sao Khua Formation included large theropods such as spinosaurids and carcharodontosaurids that lived alongside Kinnareemimus, as well as other fellow herbivores such as titanosaurs and some other undescribed sauropods. Non-dinosaurian members of the faunal assemblage include multiple reptilian taxa as well as some fish and sharks.