Distribution:
Oviraptors lived in the area now recognised as Asia.
Time Period:
These dinosaurs existed during the Cretaceous period, 88-70 million years ago. This period was the third and final part of the Mesozoic Era. Until this Era the continents which exist today were fused into one super continent called Pangaea which was surrounded by one huge ocean. Although Pangaea had already begun to break apart during the Triassic and Jurassic periods (the previous two segments of the Mesozoic Era), the Cretaceous period witnessed this super continent spread across the Earth’s surface. The change caused Earth’s climate to slowly cool down and the continents and oceans familiar to us today first started to take form. The Cretaceous period ended with the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. This was mostly caused by an asteroid hitting the planet, but this period also had a lot of volcanic activity. The challenges of overcoming all the changes to the period, the volcanic activity and the asteroid strike were too many difficulties for dinosaurs to overcome.
Size:
They reached an average length of 2 meters (7 ft) and a height of 1 meter (3.5 ft) weighing around 25kg (55lbs)
Diet:
This dinosaur was a carnivore which fed mostly on eggs and sometimes molluscs and fish.
Interesting facts:
Oviraptors had no teeth and their upper and lower jaws were shaped like a beak. This was ideal for cracking into eggs and shell fish, two of their main food sources. They are known as one of the most bird-like dinosaurs because they had beaks and long, powerful legs like an ostrich or an emu has. It is also possible that they had feathers but there isn’t enough evidence yet to know. Their name means ‘egg thief’ and they are only known from a single specimen found near to a protoceratops nest (probably due to its eating habits). This means that there is still a lot to learn about the species.