“ | In the fast and furious world of dinosaurs, these are the road-runners. | ” |
— The Narrator, describing Orodromeus
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Orodromeus (meaning "Mountain Runner") is a genus of herbivorous thescelosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of North America. Orodromeus is a small fast bipedal herbivore that probably coexisted with dinosaurs such as Daspletosaurus and Einiosaurus. It's length is estimated by Horner & Weishampel at 2.5 metres.
Description[]
Orodromeus are small, scaly herbivores with relatively large heads on thin necks. Their heads are mostly made up of their large brown eyes, with their small beaks at their mouths. The males are brown, with a blue stripe along their back and multiple dark brown stripes coming out of the blue. Females and young are nearly the same as the males, but a lighter brown without the brown stripes.
In Dinosaur Planet[]
"Little Das' Hunt"[]
A herd of Orodromeus is first seen grazing, with one acting as lookout. After a brief distraction by a flock of Quetzalcoatlus, the lookout notices a pack of Troodon and wails a distress call, before the herd flees. While the Troodon give chase, they are quickly lost when they can't slow down to cross some rocks and are caught in a geyser field. Another herd of Orodromeus is seen drinking as another pack of Troodon appears in the area to do the same, causing the herd to quickly hide. The Troodon do catch their scent, but don't find them and quickly leave. (this scene is not included on The Essential Dinosaur Pack version of the herd). Once the herd comes out they are greeted to boiling water and a strange substance causing areas of steam, leaving the herd confused. They are last seen as the last Troodon from the beginning attempts to flee the erupting volcano, where it briefly stumbles upon a dead herd of Orodromeus. The other Orodromeus are most likely killed by the pryroclastic flow offscreen.
Errors[]
- Their arms are shown to be pronated when in real life they would have been facing forward in a clapping like position.
Trivia[]
- It was believed that a nest of Orodromeus eggs was found, but these turned out to belong to Troodon.
- Orodromeus is similar in appearance to dinosaurs such as Thescelosaurus and Parksosaurus.