Genus
Valid Extinct

Compsognathus

elegant jaw
Wagner 1861
Etymology jolie mâchoire

Compsognathus is a genus of small, bipedal, carnivorous theropod dinosaur. Members of its single species Compsognathus longipes could grow to around the size of a chicken. They lived about 150 million years ago, during the Tithonian age of the late Jurassic period, in what is now Europe. Paleontologists have found two well-preserved fossils, one in Germany in the 1850s and the second in France more than a century later. Today, C. longipes is the only recognized species, although the French specimen was once thought to belong to a separate species named C. corallestris.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
4
Group
Dinosaures
Carnivore, insectivore Ground dwelling Terrestrial
Compsognathus
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全身骨格. © Zach Tirrell from Plymouth, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB Wikipedia
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
Theropoda Unranked clade
Neotheropoda Unranked clade
Averostra Unranked clade
Tetanurae Unranked clade
Coelurosauria Unranked clade
Compsognathidae Family
Compsognathus Genus
Fossil sites 4 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇫🇷 France
2
🇵🇹 Portugal
1
🇩🇪 Germany
1
Geological formations
Painten
1
Temporal distribution
Tithonian (149.2–143.1 Ma)
1
Kimmeridgian (154.8–149.2 Ma)
3
Species (2)
Compsognathus corallestris subjective synonym of Compsognathus longipes 155 Ma
Compsognathus longipes 155 Ma
Bibliography
Original description
J. A. Wagner. 1861. Neue Beiträge zur Kenntniss der urweltlichen Fauna des lithographischen Schiefers [New contributions to the knowledge of the ancient fauna of the lithographic slates]. Abhandlungen der königlichen bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaft, II Classe 9(1):65-124
Bibliography (4)
O. W. M. Rauhut. 2000. The dinosaur fauna from the Guimarota mina. Guimarota—A Jurassic Ecosystem, Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, München
A. Bidar, L. Demay, and G. Thomel. 1972. Compsognathus corallestris, nouvelle espèce de dinosaurien théropode du Portlandien de Canjuers (sud-est de la France). Annales du Musée d'Histoire Naturelle de Nice 1(1):1-34
P. Gervais. 1873. Chapitre III. Remarques au sujet des reptiles provenant des calcaires lithographiques de Cerin, dans le Bugey, qui sont conservés au Musée de Lyon [Chapter III. Remarks on subject of the reptiles found in the lithographic limestones of Cerin, in Bugey, that are kept in the Musée de Lyon]. Annales de la Société d’Agriculture, Histoire Naturelle et Arts Utiles de Lyon, quatrième série 5:79-85
J. A. Wagner. 1861. Neue Beiträge zur Kenntniss der urweltlichen Fauna des lithographischen Schiefers [New contributions to the knowledge of the ancient fauna of the lithographic slates]. Abhandlungen der königlichen bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaft, II Classe 9(1):65-124