Compsognathus
Sign in to saveCompsognathus (; Greek kompsos/κομψός; "elegant", "refined" or "dainty", and gnathos/γνάθος; "jaw") is a genus of small, bipedal, carnivorous theropod dinosaur. Members of its single species Compsognathus longipes could grow to around the size of a chicken. They lived about 150 million years ago, during the Tithonian age of the late Jurassic period, in what is now Europe. Paleontologists have found two well-preserved fossils, one in Germany in the 1850s and the second in France more than a century later. Today, C. longipes is the only recognized species, although the French specimen was o
AI overview
Compsognathus was a tiny, meat-eating dinosaur that walked on two legs and was about the size of a chicken, living in Europe roughly 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period. It matters to paleontologists because two exceptionally well-preserved fossils—one found in Germany in the 1850s and another discovered in France over a century later—have provided valuable evidence about small theropod dinosaurs from that era.
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Article
14 sectionsContents
- Discovery and species
- Description
- Integument
- Classification
- Paleobiology
- Habitat
- Diet
- Possible eggs
- Speed
- Paleoenvironment
- Taphonomy
- In popular culture
- References
- External links
Compsognathus (; Greek kompsos/κομψός; "elegant", "refined" or "dainty", and gnathos/γνάθος; "jaw") is a genus of small, bipedal, carnivorous theropod dinosaur. Members of its single species Compsognathus longipes could grow to around the size of a chicken. They lived about 150 million years ago, during the Tithonian age of the late Jurassic period, in what is now Europe. Paleontologists have found two well-preserved fossils, one in Germany in the 1850s and the second in France more than a century later. Today, C. longipes is the only recognized species, although the French specimen was once thought to belong to a separate species named C. corallestris.
Many presentations still describe Compsognathus as "chicken-sized" dinosaurs because of the size of the German specimen, which is now believed to be a juvenile. Compsognathus longipes is one of the few dinosaur species whose diet is known with certainty: the remains of small, agile lizards are preserved in the bellies of both specimens. Teeth discovered in Portugal may be further fossil remains of the genus.