Oviraptor
Name: Oviraptor
(Egg thief).
Phonetic: Oh-vee-rap-tor.
Named By: Henry Fairfield Osborn - 1924.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Theropoda, Oviraptoridae, Oviraptorinae.
Species: O. philoceratops (type).
Type: Carnivore.
Size: Estimated about 1.6 meters long.
Known locations: Mongolia - Djadochta Formation.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: One confirmed specimen,
possible other remains.
The
dinosaur Oviraptor has a very unfortunate name as
it was given to it on
the presumption that it stole other dinosaur’s eggs. When the first
dinosaur eggs were discovered in Mongolia, they were thought to
belong to the herbivorous Protoceratops
due to the large number of
their remains in the vicinity. Also because the Oviraptor
specimen in
question has had its skull crushed, it was thought that it was
inflicted by a Protoceratops that was guarding the
nest. Further,
the type species name philoceratops translates to
'lover of
ceratopsians', as in a preferred food source.
However
a study conducted by Mark Norrel et al. in 1993
revealed the
presence of an Oviraptor embryo, revealing for
the first time that
the Oviraptor was not stealing eggs, it was
merely tending to its own
nest. A resulting scenario that could play out if the Oviraptor
had
indeed had its skull crushed by a Protoceratops could
run along the
lines of a Protoceratops disturbing an Oviraptor
as it was on the
nest. The Oviraptor only thinking about
defending its nest
begins an immediate threat display and possible attack on the invading
Protoceratops. When things escalated too far,
the Protoceratops
may
have been able to capture the head of the Oviraptor
in its beak,
crushing is skull in the process. The death of the Oviraptor
therefore could be indicative of the eggs failure to hatch.
Although
its name is now considered a slight against the possible true behaviour
of Oviraptor, Henry Fairfield Osborn did not name
it out of complete
rashness, he merely interpreted the name from the proximity of the
Oviraptor remains to the eggs. When naming Oviraptor
in his 1924
paper, Osborn did indeed note the fact that the name may not
actually be befitting the dinosaur’s true nature.
For
what has become a highly popular dinosaur, only partial remains are
known, including the aforementioned crushed skull. For this reason
reconstruction of Oviraptor is reliant upon the
study of another very
similar dinosaur, Citipati.
In many ways Oviraptor
and Citipati are
almost identical, and this has allowed for what are considered to be
much more accurate reconstructions of Oviraptor.
As
a member of the oviraptoridae,
Oviraptor almost
certainly had a
covering of feathers over its entire body. It also likely had a
pygostyle, several fused vertebrae at the base of the tail that in
modern birds is used as a support for tail feathers. A further
comparison that could be drawn up from the Oviraptor
nest and
individuals of Citipati is nesting behaviour.
Study has shown that
the feathered covered arms were used to insulate eggs as they were
incubated for hatching. Also, Oviraptor seems
to have had a similar
head crest to Citipati, although perhaps not as
large.
With
the egg stealing idea now debunked unless hard fossil evidence for
Oviraptor eating eggs can be found, it has left
doubt as to the exact
kind of diet this dinosaur once had. Because it possessed a short
beak with no teeth, it could presumably eat anything. One clue is
the remains of a lizard found with the original material in what would
have been its stomach. Fossils of clams and molluscs are also common
to the area, and it's conceivable that the beak once thought to have
been used for breaking eggs could have been used to break the shells of
clams. These two facts suggest that animal protein would have formed
at least a part of the diet. Oviraptor may have
also been able to
live an omnivorous lifestyle by also including things like seasonal
fruits such as berries in its diet, although without evidence, this
can only be speculation.
Further reading
- Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central
Mongolia. - American
Museum Novitates, 144: 12 pages, 8 figs.; (American Museum of Natural
History) New York. - H. F. Osborn - 1924.
- A new Late Cretaceous family of small theropods (Oviraptoridae n.
fam.) in Mongolia. - Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR 226(3):221-22.3 - R.
Barsbold - 1976.
- Bezzubyye khishchnyye dinozavry Mongolii [Toothless carnivorous
dinosaurs of Mongolia]. Sovmestnaia Sovetsko-Mongol’skaia
Paleontologicheskaia Ekspeditsiia Trudy 15:28-39. - R. Barsbold - 1981.
- Osteology of Oviraptor philoceratops, a possible
herbivorous theropod
from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia. - Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology. 10 (supp. 003): 42A. - D. K. Smith - 1990.
- On the discovery of an oviraptorid skeleton on a nest of eggs at
Bayan Mandahu, Inner Mongolia, People's Republic of China. - Canadian
Journal of Earth Sciences. 33 (4): 631−636. - Z. Dong & P. J.
Currie - 1996.
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