Oviraptor is a genus of oviraptorid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period. The first remains were collected from the Djadokhta Formation of Mongolia in 1923 during a paleontological expedition led by Roy Chapman Andrews, and in the following year the genus and type species Oviraptor philoceratops were named by Henry Fairfield Osborn. The genus name refers to the initial thought of egg-stealing habits, and the specific name was intended to reinforce this view indicating a preference over ceratopsian eggs. Despite the fact that numerous specimens have been referred to the genus, Oviraptor is only known from a single partial skeleton regarded as the holotype, as well as a nest of about fifteen eggs and several small fragments from a juvenile.
Its name means "egg thief": the fossil described in 1924 lay on a nest thought to belong to Protoceratops. In the 1990s, an oviraptorid embryo found in an identical egg showed it was actually brooding eggs of its own kind.
Close relatives such as Citipati have been found fossilized sitting on their nests, arms spread around the eggs — exactly like a brooding bird.
It had no teeth: its mouth ended in a sturdy horny beak, topped in many oviraptorids by a bony crest.
H. F. Osborn. 1924. Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central Mongolia. American Museum Novitates 144:1-12
Bibliography (3)
Q. Wu, J. K. O’Connor, and S. Wang, Z. Zhou. 2024. Transformation of the pectoral girdle in pennaraptorans: critical steps in the formation of the modern avian shoulder joint. PeerJ 12:e16960
DOI ↗
A. N. Riabinin. 1938. Some results of the studies of the Upper Cretaceous dinosaurian fauna from the vicinity of the station Sary-Agach, South Kazakhstan. Problems of Paleontology 4:125-135
H. F. Osborn. 1924. Three new Theropoda, Protoceratops zone, central Mongolia. American Museum Novitates 144:1-12