abbyhoward

Extinct Creatures 9-- Gigantoraptor erlianensis

Added 2016-08-24 17:53:24 +0000 UTC

Ah, Gigantoraptor erlianensis, what a beautiful and frightening beast! It lived in what is now Mongolia around 70 million years ago, in the late Cretaceous, and it was most likely a predator (though there is still some speculation about its diet).

Gigantoraptor might share some superficial similarities with birds, but it belongs to a separate group of theropods which just happened to evolve birdlike features, the oviraptorids. Though the wings are actually a trait shared by most if not all maniraptorans, which is the name for a pretty large group of theropods that includes these guys, dromaeosaurs (like velociraptor), birds, and troodontids (among others). Most other oviraptorids are pretty average sized, and sometimes pretty small, so you can see where Gigantoraptor gets its name.

The group is named for Oviraptor, one of the first oviraptorids discovered, and it means "egg stealer". This is because its fossil was found near a fossilized nest thought to belong to a different dinosaur, so for many many years it was presumed to have died while stealing eggs from the nest. But it was discovered fairly recently that inside those eggs were Oviraptor embryos, and it was protecting its own nest! So the Egg Stealer is actually the Good Parent. There have in fact been multiple instances of Oviraptors dying while protecting their nests, so they may have been the best parents of all.

That's it for this week's extinct creature! Keep your eyes peeled for a Sistertime in the next few days ;0

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