In Hand Museum - Oviraptor

Oviraptor was a small bipedal dinosaur that grew up 2 meters (six feet) long and stood about 1 meter to the top of its back. It was built for running and had a body very similar to the "ostrich mimic" dinosaur Ornithomimosaurus. Oviraptor fossils are rare, and our knowledge of them is limited to very few skeletons. Evidence seems to point to the fact that they lived along the shores of freshwater lakes in an otherwise semi-arid landscape, perhaps feeding on the numerous clams that lived in the lakes.

Discovery
When the members of the American Museum of Natural History's expeditions to Mongolia discovered dinosaur eggs in the 1920s, they found the bones of a small theropod dinosaur on top of some of them. Thinking the eggs were those of the horned dinosaur Protoceratops and looking at the powerfully built jaws of the small theropod, expedition members proposed that it preyed on the eggs of Protoceratops and other dinosaurs. This new dinosaur was named Oviraptor or,"egg stealer." Researchers now know that the eggs found with Oviraptor were its own, and it was not preying upon them.

Taxonomy
Oviraptor philoceratops is a coelurosaur. This diverse group florished very late in the long reign of the dinosaurs, and modern birds are now thought to have originated from the coelurosaurs. If we look at Oviraptor's relationship with other dinosaur groups, we find that all coelurosaurs fall into a larger group called theropoda. This large group includes most of the well known meat-eating dinosaurs such as Megalosaurus, Spinosaurus, and Allosaurus. Recent research has reorganized theropod relationships, and many paleontologists now group the tyrannosaurs (including T. rex) in the coelurosaur branch. Other coelurosaurs include Deinonychus , Velociraptor and the ornithomimosaurs.

Features of the Oviraptor skeleton illustrate characteristics of the broader group of Coelurosaurs: very flexible neck joints which allowed the neck to move freely; gastralia (belly ribs) that protected the abdomen; and deep ligament scars on the spines of the dorsal vertebrae. These ligaments and the gastralia would have helped stabilize the abdomen and hold it forward and nearly horizontal as the dinosaur ran. Large attachment sites for muscles on the end of the tail would have helped to hold the tail rigid as a counterbalance to the forward leaning body.

Anatomy
The skull of Oviraptor philoceratops is very unusual. One of the first things you'll notice is the protruding "head gear" on the top of its head. This spongy bone forms a crest closely allied with the nasal region. Paleontologists speculate that it may have been used for display purposes.

Further study of the skull reveals that Oviraptor had no teeth. It had a beak! The oddly shaped lower jaw was designed to allow it to exert enough pressure to eat very tough or hard food. Look inside the mouth at the palate. You'll see two small projections at the back of the mouth. Oviraptors are the only dinosaurs that have these tooth-like extensions at the back of the palate. Their exact purpose is unknown.

[ Dinosauria -> Saurischia -> Theropoda -> Tetanurae -> Coelurosauria -> Oviraptorosauridae ]

Ovirapter mongoliensis