Oviraptor Facts For Kids
Oviraptor has had some bad press in its 75 million years on Earth. The main one is its name. Oviraptor since its naming in 1924 has been known as the “egg thief.” A Dinosaur that ate the eggs of other dinosaurs, in particular protoceratops eggs. this is because the first fossil was thought to be it attaching the eggs of another dinosaur. this is one of those Oviraptor Facts that has since turned out to be very far from the truth.
Oviraptor was a late cretaceous birdlike dinosaur that lived 75-70 million years ago in what is now Mongolia. Initially thought to eat eggs, later studies showed it to be sheltering its own eggs. It was small measuring about 1.5 meters in length and about 40 kg in weight It was feathered and had an omnivorous diet.
Then in the Jurassic World Dominion Prologue we see an oviraptor breaking into and eating more dinosaur eggs. So was this 2 metre long feathered dinosaur really a robber of nests, and egg thief and eater of children?? We take a look at some more oviraptor facts for kids and adults below. We also have facts sheets and coloring pages to download and print as well.
25 Oviraptor Facts for Kids
1. The name “oviraptor” means “egg thief”. This is because the first fossil of this animal was found near a clutch of eggs that scientists thought were protoceratops. However later fossils found Oviraptor sitting on top of its own eggs, so instead of eating them it might actually have been protecting them! Meaning its egg thief name is actually quite mean!
2. Oviraptor was likely to be like a modern bird when it came to parenting. It would have cared for its eggs and sat on them to keep them warm. Then caring, feeding and protecting the babies after they were born. they have found a young oviraptor close to that first fossil to help prove this.
3. Oviraptor was about 5.2 feet in length (1.6 meters) and would have weighed up to 88 lb (40kg) making it large for a member of the raptor family and much bigger than both velociraptor and pyroraptor.
4. Oviraptor was discovered in 1923 in Mongolia by Roy Chapman Andrews, but wasn’t named until 1924 by Henry Fairfield. When he classed as a bird like dinosaur “Ornithomimidae” ( understandably) it was reclassified later into its own family “Oviraptoridae“
5. Oviraptor did not have teeth, it had a wide beaked mouth.
6. Its arms were like other raptors and well developed, they had “fingers” with curved claws at the end.
You can download the fact sheet for Ankylosaurus above.
7. it had a tail like other raptors but it was shorter and at the end it had long feathers that were probably used for display to attract mates.
8. Although it was called an egg eater, probably incorrectly, the Oviraptor was an omnivore dinosaur. Carnivores eat meat, herbivores eat plants and omnivores eat both, just like you. The Oviraptor has been found with parts of a lizard inside it, and its beak was made for both planet eating, and likely also nuts and seeds just like modern birds.
9. the head of the oviraptor was about 8 inches long, and maybe longer. The head would have had a crest on top of it.
10. A lot of Dinosaurs that lived during the Late Cretaceous, especially the small theropod ( hind limb walkers) had feathers of some sort. Oviraptor is thought to have been fully feathered like similar dinosaurs.
11. Oviraptor has many other members in its family (oviraptoridae) that have been found since that first fossil discovery in 1924 (oviraptoridae), including Rinchenia, the huge Gigantoraptor which could grow to 29ft long! and the small Caudipteryx which was the size of a tukey.
12. More than 30 fossils of this animal have been found since 1924.
13. Oviraptor was alive at the End of the age of the dinosaurs and fossils found are between 75 and 71 million years old.
Oviraptor Coloring pages and Other Dinosaur Coloring Pages
14. It is believed that Oviraptor laid eggs and incubated them like a bird. most dinosaurs did lay eggs but it is difficult to know what eggs belong to what dinosaur. Not so with oviraptor, which has been found on top of its own eggs!
15. Even through oviraptor would have had feathers it would not have been able to fly, its arms / wings were to small and it did not have enough muscles.
16. Oviraptor had strong hind legs and would have been able to run quite fast, this would have been useful as that beak even through strong was no match for the teeth and claws of carnivores. .
17. Although Oviraptor lived around the same time and in the same place as the velociraptor it is unlikely it would have been prey for the tiny terror. (unless it did hunt in packs) it was as fast as one and quite a bit bigger.
18. Oviraptor lived during the Late Cretaceous period, about 75-71 million years ago. This was near the end of the age of dinosaurs.
29. AlectroSaurus and Alioramus lived at a similar time in Mongolia as Oviraptor and were large predator dinosaurs not as big as a T-rex but big enough to eat an Oviraptor.
It also lived at the same time as Tarbosaurus which is a Tyrannosaurus Rex sized dinosaur which if it found an oviraptor would have eaten it we are sure. Tarbosaurus name means alarming lizard, and if you saw one I’m sure it would be quite alarming!
20. Many other famous dinosaurs lived in Mongolia during the late cretaceous period, including some Movie stars! Therizinosaurus, which is in the Jurassic world Dominion movie lived at the same time, as did both Gallimimus and Velociraptor. Some very famous dinosaurs to share its environment with!
21. Oviraptor lived in what is now Mongolia, which at the time was thought to be similar to the Gobi desert. this means is was quite dry with sand and dirt with sandstorms ( which is what they think trapped the first fossil)
22. Oviraptor was probably warm blooded to a degree. it needed to be fast and active, and experiments by scientists have shown it was abe to raise its temperature when laying eggs and possibly keeping them warm.
23 Oviraptor is one of the easier dinosaur names to say. it has four syllables and You say it like this. ‘Oh-Vee – Rap-Tor”
we have to include another member of the oviraptor family here to Citipati just because it is fun to say! Sit – ee – pah – tee ( its name is less cute it means funeral pyre lord!)
‘Oh-Vee – Rap-Tor“
Conclusion
We hope you have learnt a few more facts about this hard done by feathered dinosaur from our Oviraptor facts pages. It has been given the wrong name, it appears to have been a caring parents, and although it may have eaten eggs if it found them ( so do we by the way!) it doesn’t look like the name egg thief is a very fair name of Oviraptor.
It is the most famous of the family for all the wrong reasons! If you want to know more we also have a questions and answers article on the omvirous oviraptor on the site and don’t for get to grab your fact sheet and your coloring pages if you want them too.
if you want to know more about other dinosaur species we have both facts and question answers on the site which you can check out in the menu above or in the sidebar. Or you can click this button to see our (quite) organised lists of all the dinosaurs we have covered so far.
Some of My Dinosaur Resource Recommendations for Home and School.
Thanks for taking the time to read our facts and questions articles, as a teacher myself i have struggled to find resources in one place and that is why this website was born. I simply love teaching students about dinosaurs both in my role as a language and General Studies teacher. However there is sometimes a need for something more concrete than a printout (as useful as we think ours are! )
Sometimes having something tactile to touch in those tiny hands help to focus and cement learning and develop those big brains! Hope they are helpful too.
Dinosaur Books and Readers
There are of course hundreds of excellent, and not so excellent books on Dinosaurs for Children out there. So rather than, yet, go into huge detail. I will highlight the ones I love to use with my students from ages 6 to 10. We have include AR in these as well. ( nothing quite like a moving dinosaur in front of you!
Fossil Sets
I cant say how great these are to use in a classroom while reading with a group. the chance to read about a dinosaur and then touch a real piece is simply great. I have a selection ( self confessed dinosaur geek) but a cheap set of 10 or so will do the trick just as well. Dinosaur poop is great as well!!! i pass it round and ask them to guess what it is first!
Dinosaur Figures
I actually use realia in a lot of classes especially with animals and dinosaurs, and figures help to show the kind of animal we are reading about. It is possible to spend hundreds of dollars on dinosaur figures but there is no need, either as a teacher or a parent. The set below and similar we have used to help students picture dinosaurs to great effect.
References
Hi, I am Roy Ford a General Studies and English Teacher who has taught all over the world. What started as a fossil collection became a great way to teach, motivate and inspire students of all ages and all over the world about dinosaurs and from that and children’s love of dinosaurs came the site dinosaur facts for kids, a resource for all ages.
