Ornithomimus velox (Marsh, 1890)

Osborn, H. F., 1917, Skeletal Adaptations of Ornitholestes, Struthiomimus, Tyrannosaurus, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 35, pp. 733-771 : 738

1. Ornithomimus velox .

The genotype specimen of Ornithomimus velox Marsh is probably of Triceratops zone age. It consists of leg bones found in 1892 by G. L. Cannon about twelve miles from Denver, Colorado, near where the old Morrison should have left the mesa going down into Beaver Creek Valley at the head of a small arroyo east of road and near a small white school house.1 The geologic age of this genotype still remains to be determined precisely; it is probably the Triceratops zone. The records of the Peabody Museum, Yale University, are as follows: The genotype of Ornithomimus velox bears the catalogue number Yale Museum 542 , collected by George L. Cannon June 30, 1889, in the Denver sandstone, in the southwest quarter of section 27, tier 4 S., range 69 W. The locality note in Professor Marsh’s handwriting is as follows: “ Foot of Ornithomimus ? found on Bear Creek road from Morrison to Denver, where it leaves the creek and goes on hills, 6 m. from Morrison. (Right hand side road). 20 ft. from road bed, near end of gully within 100 yards of house of left of road (white house with chicken coops and the only house on slope of hill near top.) 6 ft. below road bed and near end of gully.” The presumption is that this is the same horizon as that of Triceratops (Bison) alticornis , but that specimen is now in the United States National Museum, Washington. 2 The locality of the type of Triceratops (Bison) alticornis is in the suburbs of the city of Denver. The records of the United States National Museum give the locality of the type of Triceratops alticornis as Green Mountain Creek, near Denver, Colorado.3 Marsh in his description says: "Portions of the same specimen were subsequently secured by Whitman Cross of the U. S. Geological Survey.”