Oviraptoridae

Oviraptoridae is a group of bird-like, herbivorous or omnivorous maniraptoran dinosaurs. Oviraptorids are characterized by their toothless, parrot-like beaks and, in some cases, elaborate crests. They were generally small, measuring between one and two metres long in most cases, though some possible oviraptorids were enormous. Oviraptorids are currently known only from the Late Cretaceous in Asia, with the most well-known species and complete specimens found only in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and northwestern China.

Oviraptoridae

PaleoNeolitic (montage creator) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
OviraptorosauriaPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Oviraptorosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, depth=surfacePBDB, for Oviraptorosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Oviraptorosauria
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Oviraptorosauria

Time the record covers

At least 28 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 66 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 45 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 44 of 45 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 45 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–117 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences117–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences109–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–103 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences103–101 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences101–99 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences90–88 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences88–86 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences86–84 Mya — about 1 occurrence84–82 Mya — about 3 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 3 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 3 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 3 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 3 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 3 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 7 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 7 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 7 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 3 occurrences100.5 Mya72.2 Mya123 Mya65 Mya

45 occurrences of Oviraptoridae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

45 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

12 formations

Djadokhta — 43.66°N, 100.90°EDjadokhta — 44.13°N, 103.56°EDjadokhta — 44.05°N, 102.82°EDjadokhta — 44.00°N, 104.00°ENemegt — 43.49°N, 101.28°ENemegt — 43.85°N, 100.14°ENemegt — 43.87°N, 100.01°ENemegt — 43.47°N, 99.83°ENemegt — 43.50°N, 100.33°ENemegt — 43.57°N, 100.48°ENemegt — 43.54°N, 99.60°EBaruungoyot — 43.25°N, 99.75°EBaruungoyot — 43.30°N, 99.60°EBaruungoyot — 43.51°N, 101.06°EBaruungoyot — 43.49°N, 99.83°EHekou — 25.82°N, 114.93°EHekou — 25.87°N, 115.00°EHekou — 25.82°N, 114.97°EBayan Mandahu — 41.80°N, 106.74°EBayan Mandahu — 41.70°N, 106.76°EPingling — 24.95°N, 114.07°EPingling — 25.11°N, 114.32°EQiupa — 34.02°N, 111.65°EQiupa — 34.05°N, 111.63°EDongyuan — 23.77°N, 114.73°EDabrazhin — 42.76°N, 68.54°EYalovach — 40.49°N, 69.70°EHaoling — 34.11°N, 112.59°EWulansuhai — 41.74°N, 106.75°E

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The named rock units Oviraptoridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Oviraptoridae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Oviraptoridae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

219 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 40 sites for Oviraptoridae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

37 references

Each of the 45 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 25 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Oviraptoridae

Credit
PaleoNeolitic (montage creator)
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Oviraptoridae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itOviraptorosauria through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Barsbold 1976