Oviraptor
Oviraptor philoceratops
Pronounced:
O - vih
- Rap -
tor
Diet:
Carnivore
(Meat-Eater)
Name
Means:
"egg
robber"
Length:
6 feet
(2.5 m)
Height:
2 feet
(.7 m)
Weight:
70
pounds
(30
kilos)
Time:
Late
Cretaceous
- 67 MYA
Fossil remains for this Dinosaur have been found in Central Asia
Oviraptor is a very unique dinosaur with some rather strange features. Instead of teeth it has a beak and something not seen in any other dinosaur, two teeth in the roof of its mouth. The reason it got its name is that when it was first discovered Oviraptor was sitting on a nest of eggs. It was thought it was stealing the eggs of another dinosaur. Years later, it was found that the eggs were its own and that it was trying to protect them from an approaching sandstorm.
Oviraptor
has another
unusual
feature - it
has a thin
crest of
bone on its
forehead.
This crest
seems to
have grown
and changed
throughout
its entire
life. It may
have been
used as a
form of
individual
identification
or to
differentiate
gender.
Also,
different
species of
the
Oviraptor
genus had
different
crests. It
is not clear
what
Oviraptor
ate. Since
it was
probably not
eggs, and it
had very
strong jaws,
some think
it would
have eaten
shellfish
that it
could easily
crack open.
Others argue
that it must
have been an
herbivore as
its skull
did not show
characteristics
for meat
eating.
Of
particular
note is that
an as yet
undescribed
North
American
Oviraptor
was
discovered
in 1996 in
South
Dakota. This
specimen is
very large,
almost 20
feet long. A
trackway has
also been
associated
with this
find. |
