Oviraptorosauria

Oviraptorosaurs
Temporal range: Cretaceous, 130–66 Ma
Oviraptorosauria diversity. Clockwise from top left: GIN 100/42 (which may represent Citipati or a different taxon), "Ronaldoraptor" (undescribed), Avimimus, Anzu and Gigantoraptor
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Clade: Pennaraptora
Clade: †Oviraptorosauria
Barsbold, 1976
Subgroups
Synonyms

Oviraptorosaurs ("egg thief lizards") are a group of feathered maniraptoran dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period of what are now Asia and North America. They are distinct for their characteristically short, beaked, parrot-like skulls, with or without bony crests atop the head. They ranged in size from Caudipteryx, which was the size of a turkey, to the 8-meter-long, 1.4-ton Gigantoraptor.[2] The group (along with all maniraptoran dinosaurs) is close to the ancestry of birds. Some researchers such as Maryanska et al (2002) and Osmólska et al. (2004) have proposed that they may represent primitive flightless birds.[3][4] The most complete oviraptorosaur specimens have been found in Asia.[5] The North American oviraptorosaur record is sparse.[5]

The earliest and most basal ("primitive") known oviraptorosaurs are Ningyuansaurus wangi, Protarchaeopteryx robusta and Incisivosaurus gauthieri, both from the lower Yixian Formation of China, dating to about 125 million years ago during the Aptian age of the early Cretaceous period. A tiny neck vertebra reported from the Wadhurst Clay Formation of England shares some features in common with oviraptorosaurs, and may represent an earlier occurrence of this group (at about 140 million years ago).[6]

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ Xu, X.; Tan, Q.; Wang, J.; Zhao, X.; Tan, L. (2007). "A gigantic bird-like dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of China" (PDF). Nature. 447 (7146): 844–847. Bibcode:2007Natur.447..844X. doi:10.1038/nature05849. PMID 17565365. S2CID 6649123.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference maryanskaetal2002 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Osmólska, Halszka, Currie, Philip J., Brasbold, Rinchen (2004) "The Dinosauria" Weishampel, Dodson, Osmólska. "Chapter 8 Oviraptorosauria" University of California Press.
  5. ^ a b 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.
  6. ^ Naish, D.; 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 (4): 464–471. Bibcode:2011CrRes..32..464N. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2011.03.001.