Fossil Friday: Ornitholestes
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primeval_denial but also posting here as Fossil Friday.
Ornitholestes was a bipedal carnivorous therapod that lived North America in the late Jurassic. It is estimated to have been about 70cm high and about two metres long (so a bit smaller than depicted in Primeval: New World).
Although Ornitholestes had long legs, they are not as long, comparatively speaking, as other therapods suggesting it may not have been as fast moving as similar creatures. In contrast it has longer arms complete with hands and long fingers, and joints that allow the arms great freedom of movement. It has therefore been hypothesized that Ornitholestes hunted small lizards and animals, catching them with its hands.
Ornitholestes was first discovered in July 1900, making it the first therapod discovery of the twentieth century. Henry Fairfield Osborn(e?), describing the dinosaur in 1903, suggested that the creature preyed on early birds (and indeed the name Ornitholestes means "bird robber"). He later changed his mind about this but not before Charles R. Knight had depicted Ornitholestes capturing an Archeopteryx (despite the fact that the two species lived on different continents). Ornitholestes has also often been depicted with a small crest on the tip of its snout which is now thought to have been the result of a skull getting crushed in the fossilisation process and not an actual feature of the dinosaur at all.
Knight's depiction of an Ornitholestes catching an Archeopteryx.
References:
Wikipedia: Ornitholestes
Prehistoric Wildlife: Ornitholestes
primeval_denial but also posting here as Fossil Friday.Ornitholestes was a bipedal carnivorous therapod that lived North America in the late Jurassic. It is estimated to have been about 70cm high and about two metres long (so a bit smaller than depicted in Primeval: New World).
Although Ornitholestes had long legs, they are not as long, comparatively speaking, as other therapods suggesting it may not have been as fast moving as similar creatures. In contrast it has longer arms complete with hands and long fingers, and joints that allow the arms great freedom of movement. It has therefore been hypothesized that Ornitholestes hunted small lizards and animals, catching them with its hands.
Ornitholestes was first discovered in July 1900, making it the first therapod discovery of the twentieth century. Henry Fairfield Osborn(e?), describing the dinosaur in 1903, suggested that the creature preyed on early birds (and indeed the name Ornitholestes means "bird robber"). He later changed his mind about this but not before Charles R. Knight had depicted Ornitholestes capturing an Archeopteryx (despite the fact that the two species lived on different continents). Ornitholestes has also often been depicted with a small crest on the tip of its snout which is now thought to have been the result of a skull getting crushed in the fossilisation process and not an actual feature of the dinosaur at all.
Knight's depiction of an Ornitholestes catching an Archeopteryx.
References:
Wikipedia: Ornitholestes
Prehistoric Wildlife: Ornitholestes
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Date: 2019-06-18 08:02 am (UTC)