Oviraptor philoceratops

Name: "egg thief"

Length: 2.5 m

Height: 0.7 m

Weight: 35 kg

Diet: carnivore

Time: Cretaceous (80-70 MYA)

Location: Asia

Oviraptor is a genus of small Mongolian theropod dinosaur, first discovered by legendary paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews, and first described by Henry Fairfield Osborn, in 1924. Its name is Latin for ‘egg seizer’, referring to the fact that the first fossil specimen was discovered atop a pile of what were thought to be Protoceratops eggs, and the specific name philoceratops means “lover of ceratopsians”, also given as a result of this find. In his 1924 paper, Osborn explained that the name was given due to the close proximity of the skull of Oviraptor to the nest (it was separated from the eggs by only four inches of sand). However, Osborn also suggested that the name Oviraptor “may entirely mislead us as to its feeding habits and belie its character.” In the 1990s, the discovery of nesting oviraptorids like Citipati proved that Osborn was correct in his caution regarding the name. These finds showed that the eggs in question probably belonged to Oviraptor itself, and that the specimen was actually brooding its eggs.

Oviraptor lived in the late Cretaceous Period, during the Santonian stage, and may have lived in an earlier stage called the Campanian, between 80 to 70 million years ago; it comes almost exclusively from the Djadokhta Formation of Mongolia, as well as the northeast region of the Neimongol Autonomous Region of China, in an area called Bayan Mandahu.

Oviraptor is a very unique dinosaur with some rather strange features. Instead of teeth it has a beak and something not seen in any other dinosaur, two teeth in the roof of its mouth. The reason it got its name is that when it was first discovered Oviraptor was sitting on a nest of eggs. It was thought it was stealing the eggs of another dinosaur. Years later, it was found that the eggs were its own and that it was trying to protect them from an approaching sandstorm.
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PERSONAL NOTE: I think this is an adorable dinosaur that i may have as a pet.