page_title: Timeline of oviraptorosaur research
section_title: 2000s
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of oviraptorosaur research / 21st century / 2000s
caption_attribution_description: Gigantoraptor - 01
context_page_description: This timeline of oviraptorosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the oviraptorosaurs, a group of beaked, bird-like theropod dinosaurs. The early history of oviraptorosaur paleontology is characterized by taxonomic confusion due to the unusual characteristics of these dinosaurs. When initially described in 1924 Oviraptor itself was thought to be a member of the Ornithomimidae, popularly known as the "ostrich" dinosaurs, because both taxa share toothless beaks. Early caenagnathid oviraptorosaur discoveries like Caenagnathus itself were also incorrectly classified at the time, having been misidentified as birds.
  The hypothesis that caenagnathids were birds was questioned as early as 1956 by Romer, but not corrected until Osmolska formally reclassified them as dinosaurs in 1976. Meanwhile, the classification of Oviraptor as an ornithomimid persisted unquestioned by researchers like Romer and Steel until the early 1970s when Dale Russell argued against the idea in 1972.
context_section_description: 2000
  Currie, Norell, and Ji described the new species Caudipteryx dongi.
  Barsbold and others described the new genus and species Nomingia gobiensis.
  Zhou and Wang named the Caudipterygidae.
  2001
  Clark, Norell, and Barsbold described the new genus and species Citipati osmolskae.
  Clark, Norell, and Barsbold described the new genus and species Khaan mckennai.
  David J. Varrichio reported the first occurrences of oviraptorosaurs from Montana. The first find was an articular region from the lower jaw of Caenagnathus sternbergi of Campanian age from the Two Medicine Formation. This species had previously only been known from the Canadian province of Alberta. Another new Montanan oviraptorosaur specimen, a foot found in the Hell Creek Formation, was assigned to Leptorhynchus elegans (as Elmisaurus elegans).
  Kevin Padian, Ji Qiang and Ji Shu-an published a review of known feathered dinosaurs and their implications for the origin of flight. The authors observe that many aspects of the distribution of feather homologues meet the expectations of earlier phylogenetic hypotheses, including a gradual transition from primitive filaments in Sinosauropteryx to the shared filaments and "rudimentary" true feathers in Caudipteryx and Protarchaeopteryx, to flight feathers in Archaeopteryx. The team speculates that the plumulaceous feathers in Cauditeryx and Protarchaeopteryx may have originated as tufts of Sinosauropteryx-style filaments, the shafts of which possibly formed by the consolidation of individual filaments. The parallel nature of the barbs in Caudipteryx and Protarcheopteryx suggest the existence of barbules. This suggests that barbules, which are necessary for flight-worthy wings, evolved prior to flight.
  2000
  2002? Teresa Maryańska and others confirmed Sereno's finding that Caudipteryx was an oviraptorosaur. They also found Avimimus to be an oviraptorosaur as well.
  2002
  Xu and others described the new genus and species Incisivosaurus gauthieri. Their research supported recent findings that Caudipteryx and Avimimus were oviraptorosaurs.
  Maryanska and others performed a cladistic analysis that found oviraptorosaurs to be avialans.
  Zelenitsky and others studied the shape and shell histology of the large fossil eggs reported from China by Currie in 1996 and concluded that they may have been laid by oviraptorosaurs. Given their large size, this implied that giant oviraptorosaurs remained to be discovered.
  2003
  Lü described the new genus and species Heyuannia huangi.
  2004
  Lü and others described the new genus and species Nemegtia barsboldi.
  2005
  Zanno and Sampson described the new genus and species Hagryphus giganteus.
  Lü and others described the new genus Nemegtomaia.
  Lü and Zhang described the new genus and species Shixinggia oblita.
  2007
  Xu and others described the new genus and species Gigantoraptor erlianensis.
  2008
  T. He, X.-L. Wang, and Z.-H. Zhou described the new genus and species Similicaudipteryx yixianensis.
  2009
  Lü and others described the new genus and species Luoyanggia liudianensis.
caption: Skeletal mount of Gigantoraptor
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