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Compsognathidae is a family of small carnivorous
Carnivore

A carnivore , meaning 'meat eater' , is any animal with a diet consisting mainly of meat, whether it comes from animals living or dead .In a more general sense, an animal may be considered a carnivore if it prefers feeding on animal matter over plant matter....
 dinosaur
Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of Landform ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic Period until the end of the Cretaceous Period , when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event....
s, generally conservative in form, from the Jurassic
Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period that extends from about annum to  Ma, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous....
 and Cretaceous
Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide, is a geologic period from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period....
 Periods. Compsognathids lie at or near the origin of feathers--skin impressions are known from three genera, Sinosauropteryx
Sinosauropteryx

Sinosauropteryx is the first and most primitive genus of dinosaur found with the fossilized impressions of feathers. It lived in China during the early Cretaceous period and may have been a close relative of Compsognathus....
, Sinocalliopteryx
Sinocalliopteryx

'Sinocalliopteryx' is a genus of compsognathid dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China. While similar to the related Huaxiagnathus, Sinocalliopteryx is larger, and at 2.37 meters in length, it is the largest known compsognathid genus, and the large size of this "giant compsognathid" lent Sinocallioptery...
, and Juravenator
Juravenator

Juravenator is a genus of small coelurosaurian dinosaur, which lived in the area which would someday become the Jura mountains of Germany, 150 million years ago....
. While Sinosauropteryx and Sinocalliopteryx show evidence of a full covering of simple, primitive feathers, Juravenator shows evidence of scales on the tail and hind legs.






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Compsognathidae is a family of small carnivorous
Carnivore

A carnivore , meaning 'meat eater' , is any animal with a diet consisting mainly of meat, whether it comes from animals living or dead .In a more general sense, an animal may be considered a carnivore if it prefers feeding on animal matter over plant matter....
 dinosaur
Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of Landform ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic Period until the end of the Cretaceous Period , when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event....
s, generally conservative in form, from the Jurassic
Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period that extends from about annum to  Ma, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous....
 and Cretaceous
Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide, is a geologic period from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period....
 Periods. Compsognathids lie at or near the origin of feathers--skin impressions are known from three genera, Sinosauropteryx
Sinosauropteryx

Sinosauropteryx is the first and most primitive genus of dinosaur found with the fossilized impressions of feathers. It lived in China during the early Cretaceous period and may have been a close relative of Compsognathus....
, Sinocalliopteryx
Sinocalliopteryx

'Sinocalliopteryx' is a genus of compsognathid dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China. While similar to the related Huaxiagnathus, Sinocalliopteryx is larger, and at 2.37 meters in length, it is the largest known compsognathid genus, and the large size of this "giant compsognathid" lent Sinocallioptery...
, and Juravenator
Juravenator

Juravenator is a genus of small coelurosaurian dinosaur, which lived in the area which would someday become the Jura mountains of Germany, 150 million years ago....
. While Sinosauropteryx and Sinocalliopteryx show evidence of a full covering of simple, primitive feathers, Juravenator shows evidence of scales on the tail and hind legs. It is possible that feathers arose within this family, and/or that some species were only partially feathered.

The position of the Compsognathidae within the Coelurosaur
Coelurosauria

Coelurosauria is the clade containing all theropod dinosaurs more closely related to birds than to carnosaurs. It is a diverse group that includes Tyrannosauroidea, Ornithomimosauria, and Maniraptora; Maniraptora includes birds, the only descendents of coelurosaurs alive today....
 group is uncertain; some hold the family as the basalmost of the coelurosaurs, while others as part of the Maniraptora
Maniraptora

Maniraptora is a clade of coelurosaurian dinosaurs which includes the birds and the dinosaurs that were more closely related to them than to Ornithomimus velox....
.

Taxonomic issues

In 2003, O.W.M. Rauhut redefined the family Coeluridae
Coeluridae

Coeluridae is an historically paraphyletic family of generally small, Carnivore dinosaurs from the late Jurassic Period . For many years, any small Jurassic or Cretaceous theropoda that did not belong to one of the more specialized families recognized at the time was classified with the coelurids, creating a confusing array of 'coelurid' th...
 to include Coelurus
Coelurus

Coelurus is a genus of coelurosaur dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period . The name means "hollow tail", referring to its hollow tail vertebrae ....
 (Late Jurassic
Late Jurassic

The Late Jurassic Epoch of the Jurassic Period is the unit of geologic time scale from 161.2 ? 4.0 to 145.5 ? 4.0 million years ago, which is preserved in Upper Jurassic stratum....
, North America), Compsognathus
Compsognathus

Compsognathus was a small, bipedalism, carnivore theropoda dinosaur. The animal was the size of a turkey and lived around 150 mya , the early Tithonian faunal stage of the late Jurassic Period , in what is now Europe....
 (Late Jurassic, Europe), Sinosauropteryx
Sinosauropteryx

Sinosauropteryx is the first and most primitive genus of dinosaur found with the fossilized impressions of feathers. It lived in China during the early Cretaceous period and may have been a close relative of Compsognathus....
 (Early Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous

The Early Cretaceous or the Lower Cretaceous , is the earlier of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous Period . It began about 146 million years ago....
, Asia) and an unnamed Compsognathus
Compsognathus

Compsognathus was a small, bipedalism, carnivore theropoda dinosaur. The animal was the size of a turkey and lived around 150 mya , the early Tithonian faunal stage of the late Jurassic Period , in what is now Europe....
-like form (Early Cretaceous, South America; this dinosaur has since been placed in the new genus Mirischia
Mirischia

Mirischia is a small extinct genus of compsognathid dinosaur from the Albian stage of Brazil. Though presently known only from a pelvis and incomplete hind limbs, it preserves enough information to show that it should be recognized as a distinct species....
). However, this taxonomy has not been widely adopted. Sereno (2005) points out that Compsognathidae has priority of name, even if dinosaurs such as Coelurus or Ornitholestes belongs in the same family as Compsognathus.