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Ornitholestes (meaning "bird robber") was a small theropod 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....
 of the late 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....
 of Western Laurasia
Laurasia

Laurasia was a supercontinent that most recently existed as a part of the split of the Pangaean supercontinent in the late Mesozoic era . It included most of the landmasses which make up today's continents of the northern hemisphere, chiefly Laurentia , Baltica, Siberia , Kazakhstania, and the North China Craton and East China Craton craton...
 (the area that was to become North America). To date, it is known only from a single partial skeleton, and badly crushed skull found at the Bone Cabin Quarry near Medicine Bow
Medicine Bow

Medicine Bow can refer to the following things:* Medicine Bow, Wyoming, a town in southeastern Wyoming* Medicine Bow Mountains, a mountain range in Colorado and Wyoming...
, Wyoming
Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
, in 1900. It was described by Henry Fairfield Osborn
Henry Fairfield Osborn

Henry Fairfield Osborn was an United States geologist, paleontologist, and Eugenics, "a first-rate science administrator and a third-rate scientist."...
 in 1903. An incomplete hand was later attributed to Ornitholestes, although it now appears to belong to Tanycolagreus
Tanycolagreus

Tanycolagreus is a genus of coeluridae theropod from the Late Jurassic of North America. The holotype is a partial skeleton recovered from the Bone Cabin Quarry West locality, Albany County, Wyoming, from the Morrison Formation ....
.






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Ornitholestes (meaning "bird robber") was a small theropod 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....
 of the late 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....
 of Western Laurasia
Laurasia

Laurasia was a supercontinent that most recently existed as a part of the split of the Pangaean supercontinent in the late Mesozoic era . It included most of the landmasses which make up today's continents of the northern hemisphere, chiefly Laurentia , Baltica, Siberia , Kazakhstania, and the North China Craton and East China Craton craton...
 (the area that was to become North America). To date, it is known only from a single partial skeleton, and badly crushed skull found at the Bone Cabin Quarry near Medicine Bow
Medicine Bow

Medicine Bow can refer to the following things:* Medicine Bow, Wyoming, a town in southeastern Wyoming* Medicine Bow Mountains, a mountain range in Colorado and Wyoming...
, Wyoming
Wyoming

The State of Wyoming is a sparsely populated U.S. state in the Northwestern United States of the United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the easternmost section of the state is a high altitude prairie region known as the High Plains ....
, in 1900. It was described by Henry Fairfield Osborn
Henry Fairfield Osborn

Henry Fairfield Osborn was an United States geologist, paleontologist, and Eugenics, "a first-rate science administrator and a third-rate scientist."...
 in 1903. An incomplete hand was later attributed to Ornitholestes, although it now appears to belong to Tanycolagreus
Tanycolagreus

Tanycolagreus is a genus of coeluridae theropod from the Late Jurassic of North America. The holotype is a partial skeleton recovered from the Bone Cabin Quarry West locality, Albany County, Wyoming, from the Morrison Formation ....
. The type
Type species

In taxonomy, a type species is the species that originally defined a genus . It is an individual specimen that fixes the name of a genus . Two different definitions are used interchangeably, in a general term and a botanical term....
 (and only known) species is O. hermanni. The species name honors the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York, USA, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world....
 preparator Adam Hermann.

Description

Ornitholestes was roughly 2 meters (6.5 ft) in length. The head of Ornitholestes was relatively small. Nonetheless, the skull was more robust than that of many other small theropods, such as 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....
 and Coelophysis
Coelophysis

Coelophysis , meaning "hollow body form" in reference to its hollow bones , is one of the earliest known genus of dinosaur. It was a small, carnivore biped from North America....
, and this would have enabled Ornitholestes to deliver a powerful bite.

Gregory S. Paul
Gregory S. Paul

Gregory S. Paul is a freelance paleontologist, author and illustrator. He is best known for his work and research on theropoda dinosaurs, and his detailed illustrations, both live and skeletal....
 suggested the presence of a small horn on the snout of Ornitholestes, similar to that of Proceratosaurus
Proceratosaurus

Proceratosaurus is a genus of medium-sized carnivore theropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of England. It was originally thought to be an ancestor of Ceratosaurus, due to the similar small crest on its snout....
. however this has recently been disproved by Carpenter et al., which indicated that the 'crest' was actually a broken nasal bone. Like most other theropods, Ornitholestes had a long tail, presumably used for balance.

Discovery


Classification

Ornitholestes was a coelurosaur, similar in many ways to 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....
, though somewhat larger.

Ornitholestes

Diet

The sharp teeth of Ornitholestes clearly identify it as a carnivore
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....
, but its exact diet has been a subject of debate in the paleontological community.

In his original 1903 description, Henry Fairfield Osborn suggested that Ornitholestes might have preyed on contemporary birds, based on the "rapid grasping power of agile and delicate prey" suggested by the structure of the hand. In 1917, however, Osborn reevaluated the hand and determined that it was unsuitable for this purpose.

More recently, Robert T. Bakker
Robert T. Bakker

Robert T. Bakker is an American paleontologist who helped reshape modern theories about dinosaurs, particularly by adding support to the theory that some dinosaurs were endothermic ....
 speculated that Ornitholestes probably hunted small mammals, noting that "the Como furballs were just the right size to fit the predator's jaws."

Popular culture

The animated film Fantasia
Fantasia (film)

Fantasia is a 1940 in film List of animated feature-length films produced by Walt Disney, and is the third film in the List of Disney theatrical animated features#official canon....
 included, in the Rite of Spring
The Rite of Spring

The Rite of Spring, commonly referred to by its original French language title, Le Sacre du Printemps is a ballet with music by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, original choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, and original set design and costumes by archaeologist and painter Nicholas Roerich, all under impresario Serge Diaghilev....
 segment, what appears to be a large Ornitholestes leaping at a small Archaeopteryx
Archaeopteryx

Archaeopteryx, sometimes referred to by its German name Urvogel , is the earliest and most primitive bird known. The name is from the Ancient Greek archaios meaning 'ancient' and pteryx meaning 'feather' or 'wing'; ....
.

An Ornitholestes with a snout crest appeared in the second episode of Walking with Dinosaurs
Walking with Dinosaurs

Walking with Dinosaurs was a six-part television series produced by the BBC, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, and first aired in the UK in 1999....
 as a predator of Diplodocus
Diplodocus

Diplodocus is a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaur whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by Samuel Wendell Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a Neo-Latin term derived from Ancient Greek "double" and "beam", in reference to its double-beamed chevron located in the underside of the tail....
 youngsters. An Ornitholestes also appears in The Ballad of Big Al
The Ballad of Big Al

The Ballad of Big Al is a combination biography-sequel for Walking with Dinosaurs . It focuses on an Allosaurus named Allosaurus#.22Big_Al.22 and his constant struggle to survive in a world filled with danger....
 (a Walking with Dinosaurs special), where it tries to eat some of Al's siblings.