Animal Education 19 - Oviraptor

 So, yesterday's post was about when the movies get dinosaurs wrong. What happens when science gets dinosaurs wrong? Now, this happens a lot as what we thought was right gets changed by new discoveries. However, this change is still interesting to talk about. This is Oviraptor, up to 5.2ft. long and 73-88lb. dinosaur from late cretaceous Mongolia. Yes, this creature did live with velociraptors and is related. However, Oviraptor's lineage split off from Velociraptor before birds did. That's the current theory, anyway. So why is Oviraptor called Oviraptor? See, its name means egg thief as this was thought to be its main way of predation. This is due to it being found with nests presumed to be of Protoceratops. Oviraptor was believed to have used its large, toothless beak in completing this endeavor. However, a later specimen of the closely related Citipati revealed that they were actually very good parents as the eggs it was found with had embryos confirming they were actually eggs of the oviraptorid. On top of this, the parent was found sitting on the nest when she died, meaning they most likely stayed there during a sandstorm to protect the eggs, resulting in them getting buried and preserved as a fossil. So yeah, names can be a scam sometimes but they usually have a reason. On a final note, yes, this is another safari model.