Oviraptor ("egg thief') was a bird-like theropod with a strangely shaped head. The strong, toothless jaws ended in a beak; two sharp, bony prongs jutted down from the roof of the mouth, and the head was surmounted by a crest. The remaining of Oviraptor's body was more like that of a typical theropod, with muscular arms, clawed, three-fingered hands, long legs with three-toed feet, and a long, muscular tail.

This toothless theropod gets its name from the notion that it stole and ate horned dinosaurs' eggs: the first oviraptor philoceratops to be discovered had a smashed skull and was found lying on a nest of Protoceratops eggs. Oviraptor had strong jaws, and inside its mouth there were bony prongs with which it could easily have crushed the hard eggshells of other dinosaurs. A very similar method is used by egg-eating snakes which use the sharp bones in their necks to smash eggs.

If an oviraptor were surprised at the nest, running away would have been the best strategy in the face of its strongly built but less speedy enemies. Sometimes, though, it seems that a Protoceratops stamped an Oviraptor to death before it could escape or put up a fight.

There were two Oviraptor species, both of which lived in Late Cretaceous Mongolia. The animal shown in the main picture on these pages is Oviraptor philoceratops, which lived in semi- desert. In this habitat, eggs could have been essential as a source of moisture and nourishment.

A second species, Oviraptor mongoliensis, had a tall, domed crest, much larger than that of Oviraptor philoceratops. This animal lived near lakes and rivers rich in shellfish. One scientist concluded that it swam in search of food, sculling along with its deep tail, scooping up shellfish such as cockles and mussels with its hands, and crunching them between its jaws.

Location: Mongolia

Diet: Molluscs, eggs

Size: Length 2m

      Weight 33kg

Classification:

Family Oviraptoridae

Infraorder Tetanurae

Suborder Theropoda

Order Saurischia

Time (million years ago): 83-73