Many people who are fond of Paleontology will have heard or read about Oviraptor . A toothless, beaked, bird-like theropod (carnivorous) dinosaur. His name means “ egg thief ” and to this day he is still represented that way. But what is the truth in that? Where does that bad reputation come from?
To talk about Oviraptor we have to travel to the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, it was believed that the origin of the great groups of mammals took place in Asia, and expeditions were organized to make discoveries that could confirm or refute this hypothesis. To this end, the American Museum of Natural History organized the first expedition to the Gobi Desert . The naturalist and adventurer Roy Chapman Andrews proposed to the person in charge of this museum, Henry F. Osborn , to make a multidisciplinary expedition in which to collect geological, zoological, botanical, paleontological and archaeological data.
In 1921, the first expedition started. And in April 1922 they found the first fossils. Considering this first expedition a complete success, they returned in the following years. In the summer of 1923 they returned to this prolific area, which they had named “ Flaming Cliffs ” (which means “flaming cliffs”, due to the effect on the rocks of the sunlight at sunset). And this time the expedition’s findings were historic. It was the first time in history that dinosaur eggs were found, organized in nests. And since the herbivorous dinosaur Protoceratops was very abundant in these deposits, they believed that they were theirs.
But on that expedition they also found theropod dinosaur bones, and among them a very strange theropod that had no teeth, but a beak. Since it was found associated with these nests, Osborn opted for the most picturesque explanation when describing it in his 1924 publication: it must have been the predator preparing to feed on those eggs . That’s why he named it Oviraptor philoceratops, which means “egg thief with a taste for horned faces.” Furthermore, Osborn interpreted that its toothless jaws and beak might have been adapted to feeding on eggs, and that fossilization had “ caught it red-handed ” next to a Protoceratops nest.
For a long, long time, poor Oviraptor carried this label. But decades later, the omelette was turned around – to use an expression related to eggs, if I may. In the 1990s, a new oviraptorosaur dinosaur, a relative of his, was found and published in 2001 under the name Citipati osmolskae. This relative of Oviraptor , had very well preserved fossil remains, and among other things allowed us to reconstruct a little better the appearance of Oviraptor. Up to 4 complete skeletons of Citipati were found, and as in the 1920s, they appeared associated with nests, whose eggs were very similar. But this time these dinosaurs found themselves in a very particular position: that of incubating their eggs, in a position very similar to that adopted by many birds today. These nests and their eggs were practically identical to the clutches that during the 1920s had been interpreted as belonging to Protoceratops. So, nearly 80 years later, Oviraptor was found to have been unfairly blamed as the egg thief, when it was most likely looking after its own.
It is true that it still has a peculiar anatomy, and that those jaws without teeth and topped by a sharp beak seem perfect for feeding on eggs. Is it possible that eggs were part of their diet? It’s possible. But the reason why it was given that name was unfounded . Unfortunately, the rules of zoological nomenclature are very strict, and the scientific names of species, as long as the species remain valid, are not touched.
At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, the image of oviraptorosaurs ended up changing with the discovery of Caudipteryx in the Liaoning sites, which showed us that these dinosaurs, closely related to birds, in addition to resembling them in their skeleton, were also fully feathered.
New times for Oviraptor, no doubt.
References:
Osborn, HF 1924. Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central Mongolia. American Museum Novitates, 144: 12.
Clark, JM et al. 2001. Two new oviraptorids (Theropoda: Oviraptorosauria), upper Cretaceous Djadokhta Formation, Ukhaa Tolgod, Mongolia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology , 21(2): 209-213.
Sanz, J. L. 2007. Dragon Slayers: A Story of the Paleontologists Who Discovered and Studied the Dinosaurs . Ed. Ariel.
Gascó, F. 2021. That was not in my dinosaur history book . Guadalmazán.
Ji, Q., et al. 1998. Two feathered dinosaurs from northeastern China. Nature , 393(6687): 753–761.
