Ovumoraptor cristata

***Ovumoraptor cristata*** is an original extinct species designed and collaborated by User:GurgiFan57. It lived in what is now North America during the Campanian and the Maastrichtian, from 73.4 million to 66 million years ago.

## Appearance and anatomy

*Ovumoraptor cristata* was a rather small feathered oviraptorid, estimated at 1.6 meters (5.2 feet) long with a weight between 33–40 kilograms (73–88 lbs). It had a wide lower jaw with a skull that had a tall crest. Both upper and lower jaws were toothless and developed a horny beak, which was used during feeding along the robust morphology of the lower jaws. The arms were well-developed and elongated ending in three fingers with curved claws. Like other oviraptorids, *Ovumoraptor cristata* had long hindlimbs that had four-toed feet, with the first toe reduced. The tail was likely not very elongated, and ended in a pygostyle that supported large feathers.

## Behavior and ecology

*Ovumoraptor cristata* lived in various forested and open environments at the end of the Cretaceous period, having an opportunistic omnivorous ecological niche and being one of the most common small non-avian theropod dinosaurs of its time in North America. As one fossil of *Ovumoraptor cristata* was discovered near the nest of another dinosaur, which was proven to belonging to a separate animal from *Ovumoraptor cristata*, it is currently thought that *Ovumoraptor cristata* was an egg raider, unlike its relatives like *Oviraptor*, which was since discovered to have been a caring parent of its own offspring.

### Diet

*Ovumoraptor cristata* was an omnivore and adapted to feed on many of the fruits, ferns, horsetails, and animals smaller than itself such as insects, small vertebrates, and eggs, filling the niche similarly to modern day pigs, peccaries, and other similarly-sized omnivores. *Ovumoraptor cristata* is thought to have been a nest raider of other animals such as hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, and other unfortunate species.

### Behavior and intelligence

*Ovumoraptor cristata* is thought to have had an average intelligence among theropods, being most comparable to a modern ratite's in terms of its brain power.

### Reproduction

*Ovumoraptor cristata* probably mated for life, producing a clutch of over 9 eggs. Once hatched, the young were capable of standing, walking, and running within just hours, like some modern birds. The adults most likely taught their young how to find and find catch food, etc.

## Trivia

*Ovumoraptor cristata* was once thought to be a North American species of *Oviraptor*, but further analysis, including differences in skeletal structures and phylogenetic studies, proved that it was only a close relative of *Oviraptor* and was likely descended from a species of oviraptorid from a few million years earlier that had spread to North America from Asia through a land bridge, similarly to how *Tyrannosaurus* arrived to North America.

*Ovumoraptor cristata* is the only known member of the Oviraptoridae to have lived in North America; most oviraptorids lived in Asia, and other oviraptorosaurs of North America were actually part of the family Caenagnathidae. It may have adapted to deal with the native caenagnathids by adopting a different ecological niche.