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Oviraptor was first thought to be an egg thief - but it was actually a good parent.

It sat on its own eggs like a chicken. We've found the fossils to prove it.

2 min read
Oviraptor was first thought to be an egg thief - but it was actually a good parent.
THE FULL STORY

In 1923, paleontologists in Mongolia found a dinosaur skeleton lying on top of a nest of eggs. Naturally, they assumed the dinosaur had been caught in the act of stealing the eggs - maybe even of another species - and they named it Oviraptor, meaning “egg thief.”

For 70 years, that name stuck. Then in the 1990s, scientists looked at the eggs more carefully, found embryos inside, and realized: they’re baby Oviraptors. The “egg thief” wasn’t stealing the eggs at all. She was sitting on them - brooding them like a hen.

The pose of the skeleton, with arms folded protectively around the nest, suddenly looked completely different. This was a parent who had died on her nest, possibly trying to protect her babies from a sandstorm. The name “egg thief” is now permanently wrong - but we’re stuck with it, because scientific names can’t be changed.

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