Oviraptorosaur
Oviraptorosaurs are a group of feathered maniraptoran dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period of what are now Asia and North America. They have short, beaked, parrot-like skulls, with or without bony head crests. They ranged in size from Caudipteryx, which was the size of a turkey, to the 8 meter long, 1.4 ton Gigantoraptor.[4] The most complete oviraptorosaur specimens have been found in Asia.[5] The North American oviraptorosaur record is sparse.[5]
| Oviraptorosaurs Temporal range: Cretaceous,
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|---|---|
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| Replica of a Caudipteryx zoui skeleton | |
Scientific classification 
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| Unrecognized taxon (fix): | Maniraptoromorpha |
| Clade: | Pennaraptora |
| Clade: | Oviraptorosauria Barsbold, 1976 |
| Subgroups[3] | |
| Synonyms | |
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Caenagnathiformes Sternberg, 1940 | |
The group (and all maniraptoran dinosaurs) is close to the ancestry of birds. Oviraptorosaurs might be primitive flightless birds.[6] On the other hand, they might just be close relatives of the birds.
The earliest and most basal ("primitive") known oviraptorosaurs are Protarchaeopteryx robusta and Incisivosaurus gauthieri, both from the lower Yixian Formation of China, dating to about 125 million years ago in the Lower Cretaceous. Some fragmentary species, such as Calamospondylus oweni and Thecocoelurus daviesi, may have been even earlier members of the Oviraptorosauria. A tiny neck vertebra from England shares some features in common with oviraptorosaurs. It may represent an earlier occurrence of this group, at about 140 million years ago.[7]
Typical genera
Oviraptorosaur Media
Oviraptorosaur skeletons to scale.
Anzu wyliei skeleton cast in the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park, Colorado
Hatchling specimen known as "baby Louie"
References
- ↑ Ji Qiang, Lü Jun-Chang, Wei Xue-Fang, Wang Xu-Ri (2012). "A new oviraptorosaur from the Yixian Formation of Jianchang, Western Liaoning Province, China". Geological Bulletin of China. 31 (12): 2102–2107.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link) - ↑ He, T.; Wang, X.-L.; Zhou, Z.-H. (2008). "A new genus and species of caudipterid dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of western Liaoning, China". Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 46 (3): 178–189.
- ↑ Holtz, Thomas R. Jr. (2010) Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages, Winter 2010 Appendix.
- ↑ Xu X. et al 2007. A gigantic bird-like dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of China. Nature, 447: 844-847.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Varricchio, D.J. 2001. Late Cretaceous oviraptorosaur (Theropoda) dinosaurs from Montana. pp. 42–57 in D.H. Tanke and K. Carpenter (eds) Mesozoic vertebrate life. Indiana University Press, Indianapolis, Indiana.
- ↑ Osmólska, Halszka, Currie, Philip J., Brasbold, Rinchen 2004. In The Dinosauria Weishampel, Dodson, Osmólska. Chapter 8 Oviraptorosauria. University of California Press.
- ↑ Naish D. and Sweetman S.C. 2011. A tiny maniraptoran dinosaur in the Lower Cretaceous Hastings Group: evidence from a new vertebrate-bearing locality in south-east England. Cretaceous Research, 32: 464-471.
Other websites
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Wikispecies has information on: Oviraptorosauria. |
Media related to Oviraptorosauria at Wikimedia Commons