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Who Are You Calling an Egg Thief?
In the 1920s in the Gobi Desert, paleontologists discovered many fossilized eggs that they thought were from Protoceratops. So, when they found the first-known Oviraptor lying on a nest, these scientists guessed it was robbing the eggs of a Protoceratops. They imagined that this Oviraptor was killed by a sandstorm while trying to steal the eggs. Oviraptor philoceratops means "egg robber that loves ceratopians." In 1993, paleontologists then found a fossil egg that matched the "stolen" eggs from the 1920s. It contained a tiny oviraptorid. Now they know the first Oviraptor wasn't stealing Protoceratops eggs. Instead, it was protecting its own!
Scientific Name: Oviraptor philoceratops
"egg robber that loves ceratopians"
Pronunciation: OH-vih-rap-ter FYE-loh-SER-uh-tops
Locality Found: Gobi Desert, Mongolia
Age: Late Cretaceous, 80 million years ago
Size: 1.8 meters (6 feet) long
Characteristics: small heads with rounded nasal crest and toothless beak; its diet may have consisted of eggs, meat, mollusks, and plants
What type of food do paleontologists think Oviraptor ate?
thick, tough plants
dinosaur eggs
we don't know
Correct!
We don't know. Since Oviraptor is toothless, it's hard to tell.
Oviraptor used its three-fingered hands to help it eat.
Fact
OR
Fiction
?
Fact
Scientists believe that Oviraptor's grasping arms with clawed fingers were used to help it eat. No forks then!
“
You could just look at it, and it jumps out at you as an animal sitting on a nest.
„
Mark Norell
paleontologist