What in the heck was Deinocheirus? It had to be a meat-eater. What did it hunt? Big sauropods? That thing is scary!
from Paul, age 12, ?, ?, ?; July 17, 2001

TOM: Deinocheirus had huge scary arms, but it probably wasn't that frightening a dinosaur! The details of the arms are nearly identical to those of smaller ostrich-mimics like Struthiomimus, Ornithomimus, and Gallimimus. So Deinocheirus was probably just an ostrich-mimic dinosaur the size of a T. rex. The diet of ostrich-mimics (technically called ornithomimosaurs) isn't certain, but most paleontologists think that they were omnivorous: eating plants, eggs, and small animals. In the case of Deinocherius, though, an adult protoceratopsian or pachycephalosaur would count as a "small animal". It probably did not hunt big sauropods, but it might have hunted the babies of the sauropods that lived in its environment (Opisthocoelicaudia and Nemegtosaurus).