Compsognathus

*Compsognathus longipes* (pronounced **comp-sog-nay-thus long-eye-ps** and meaning 'Elegant Jaw') is a small, carnivorous dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period. The adults and babies are believed to have been nocturnal (only active during the night). Their original habitat would have most likely been a dry, tropical environment and therefore Compsognathus DNA can be found from tropical fossils. It is one of the three planned carnivores for the 1.0.0 release, and will be the smallest prehistoric creature to be added during that version.

## Appearance

* Male Compsognathus
* Female Compsognathus
* Baby Compsognathus
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The Compsognathus is a small, bi-pedal therapod. The males are approximately 0.75 blocks tall and 2 blocks long, while the females are slightly smaller and the babies are a quarter of the size of the males. The males and females are a dark, turquoise green in colour, with the males have a bright red stripe from their head, down their backs, to the base of their tails. The babies are a grey-brown colour with no additional markings. As it is debated whether or not Compsognathus actually had feathers of not, we have opted for a non-feathered version, although options for including a feathered texture may be available after the 1.0.0 release if anything changes.

## Behaviour

The Compsognathus, while small, is a very vicious creature and so will attempt to attack chickens and rabbits. It may also try and attack the smaller herbivories in the mod, although the success of this will vary depending on the herbivore. However, as it is a carnivore, it will not eat fish or prehistoric aquatic creatures. It was not considered to be a cannibal, and therefore it is safe to house several Compsognathus together in the same enclosure. They are nocturnal (only active during the night), and from the moment they are hatched, take four in game days to grow to adulthood.

### Feeding

The Compsognathus, as a carnivore, will eat all kinds of meat, and can also be fed through live prey such as rabbits or chickens. They will also eat from a ground feeder that is nearby and has meat in it.

### Taming

In order to safely interact with a Compsognathus, you're going to want to tame it. Otherwise, it will most likely try to attack you. The babies, on the other hand, are inherently shy and non-aggressive, and will run away from the player when they approach. Currently the method of taming is still WIP, and taming mechanics may not be implemented in the initial 1.0.0 release.

### Breeding

As long as two Compsognathus of opposite genders are close enough together, then breeding can start to occur. A female Compsognathus will lay anywhere between 1-4 eggs. For the eggs to hatch, they must be either laid on a nest, or collected and then placed onto one. The eggs will progress through three stages (starting uncracked stage, slightly cracked, and very cracked) before hatching. On average, hatching will take around a quarter of a minecraft day, or 5 minutes.

## Real Life

*Compsognathus longipes* fossils were first discovered in limestone deposits in Bavaria, and were originally seen as a strange type of lizard. The year of discovery is unknown, but all possible locations are part of the lagoonal Painten formation. Due to the limestone deposits preserving incredible speciments, Compsognathus was compared to Aechaeopteryx (seen as the first bird) and it was concluded that birds evolved from dinosaurs. This is what caused the Compsognathus to become one of the most widely known dinoaurs.

For decades, the Compsognathus was known as the smallest non-avian dinosaur until the discovery of even smaller species, such as Mahakala and Microraptor. They were esitmated to be around 1-1.5 metres in length and only around eight inches in height at the hip. Their tails were used for balance and locomotion, and their forelimbs were smaller than their hindlimbs. Their teeth were small, sharp and pointed, which suited their diet of smaller vertebrates and possibly insects. Their forelimb fingers were also originally seen to have three, like more theropods, but a current debate has called that number into question with a belief that they only had two, and the third was much more slender and non-functional.

Some relatives of Compsognathus, such as Sinosauropteryx and Sinocalliopteryx were preserved with feather-like structures covering the body like fur, which lead to some scientists suggesting Composgnathus may have shared this trait. However, no feather impressions were ever found with Compsognathus fossils, despite being found with Archeopteryx in the same sediments. Instead, skin impressions were found to have scales instead, and while this doesn't completely disprove the idea of Compsognathus having feathers, it makes it far less likely to be true.

Finally, it was found that Compsognathus had to have sharp eyesight and an ability to quickly accelerate to chase its prey, evident by the fact that some fossils were found with the skeletal remains of very fast-moving lizards in their stomachs. They were also believed to have lived in a dry, tropical climate as Europe matched this environment in the Late Jurassic. They usually lived by the coast, as their fossils are preserved with many aquatic species such as fish, crustaceans and echinoderms, and their fossils were found in lagoons situated between the beaches and coral reefs of the Jurassic European islands in the Tethys Sea.

### References

* Wagner, J. A. (1859). "Über einige im lithographischen Schiefer neu aufgefundene Schildkröten und Saurier". *Gelehrte Anzeigen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften*. **49**: 553.
* Göhlich, Ursula B.; Tischlinger, Helmut; Chiappe, Luis M. (2006). "*Juravenator starki* (reptilia, theropoda), ein neuer Raubdinosaurier aus dem Oberjura der Südlichen Frankenalb (Süddeutschland)". *Archaeopteryx: Jahreszeitschrift der Freunde des Jura-Museums in Eichstätt*. **24**: 1–26.
* Reisdorf, A.G.; Wuttke, M. (2012). "Re-evaluating Moodie's Opisthotonic-Posture Hypothesis in fossil vertebrates. Part I: Reptiles – The taphonomy of the bipedal dinosaurs *Compsognathus longipes* and *Juravenator starki* from the Solnhofen Archipelago (Jurassic, Germany)". *Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments*. **92** (1): 119–168. doi:10.1007/s12549-011-0068-y. S2CID 129785393.
* Huxley, T.H. (1868). "On the animals which are most nearly intermediate between birds and reptiles". *Annals and Magazine of Natural History*. **2**: 66–75.
* Huxley, Thomas Henry (1870). "Further evidence of the affinity between the dinosaurian reptiles and birds". *Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society*. **26** (1–2): 12–31. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1870.026.01-02.08. S2CID 129125487.
* Ostrom, J.H. (1978). "The osteology of *Compsognathus longipes*". *Zitteliana*. **4**: 73–118.
* Paul, Gregory S. (1988). "Early Avetheropods". *Predatory Dinosaurs of the World*. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 297–300. ISBN 978-0-671-61946-6.
* Viohl G (1985). "Geology of the Solnhofen lithographic limestone and the habitat of *Archaeopteryx*". In Hecht MK, Ostrom JH, Viohl G, Wellnhofer P (eds.). *The Beginnings of Birds: Proceedings of the International* Archaeopteryx *Conference*. Eichstätt: Freunde des Jura-Museums. pp. 31–44. OCLC 13213820.
* Ji, S.; Ji, Q.; Lu, J.; Yuan, C. (2007). "A new giant compsognathid dinosaur with long filamentous integuments from Lower Cretaceous of Northeastern China". *Acta Geologica Sinica*. **81** (1): 8–15.
* Currie, P.J.; P. Chen (2001). "Anatomy of Sinosauropteryx prima from Liaoning, northeastern China". *Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences*. **38** (12): 1705–1727. Bibcode:2001CaJES..38.1705C. doi:10.1139/cjes-38-12-1705.
* Xu, Xing (2006). "Palaeontology: Scales, feathers and dinosaurs". *Nature*. **440** (7082): 287–8. Bibcode:2006Natur.440..287X. doi:10.1038/440287a. PMID 16541058. S2CID 28376204.

Written by **Kangalia**