Describer

Clark, Norell & Barsbold, 2001

Time

Cretaceous Late Campanian

Classification

Saurischia Theropoda Tetanurae Coelurosauria Oviraptorosauria Oviraptoridae

Diet

Carnivore

Fossilsite

Djadochta Formation, Ankylosaur Flats, Ukhaa Tolgod, Gurvan Tes Somon, Omnogov Aimak, Mongolia

Fall Under

Citipati

Length

3 meter

Info

Typespecies - Skull - Eggs

Citipati (Clark, Norell & Barsbold, 2001) > Citipati osmolskae (Clark, Norell & Barsbold, 2001) >> Citipati sp. (Clark, Norell & Barsbold, 2001)

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Citipati\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" means \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"lord of the funeral pyre\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" in Tantric Buddhist tradition. The derivation of the trivial name: Dr. Halszka Osmolska. Nearly complete skeleton with skull (holotype IGM 100/978) Refered material: (IGM 100/979) partial postcranium overlying a nest with elongatoolithid eggs from Xanadu, a sublocality of Ukhaa Tolgod, (referral to Citipati osmolskae is based on its large size and differences from the contemporary genus Khaan. (IGM 100/971) embryonic skeleton within elongatoolithid egg, the embryo includes the ventral part of the skull, most of the mandible, a poorly preserved axial skeleton lacking most of the tail, and parts of the shoulder girdles, pelvis, forelimbs, and hindlimbs.

The embryo lies inside the egg in a fetal position, head tucked forward next to the knees, as in crocodiles, unlike the condition in birds wherein the head is tucked back under the arm (Elzanowski, 1981) The head restnear the short axis of the egg, mandibles appressed against the shell; cewrvical and thoracic vertebrae generally following the arc of the apex of the egg; arms and shoulder girdle lying just below the head; pelvis on the opposite side of the egg from the snout; hind leg flexed with knee just under the anmoal\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s chin, foot flexed, parallel to the long axis of the tibia. (Norell, Clark and Chiappe, 2001)

Citipati osmolskae\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s main differences from other oviraptorids; has a shorter skull than Oviraptor philoceratops, differs from \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Rinchenia\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" mongoliensis in lacking a convex crest on frontals and parietals, has a taller and more highly pneumatized nasal than Conchoraptor, and differs from all other oviraptorids in the fact that its dorsal part of the skull is shifted anteriorly and has more elongate cervical vertebrae. The skull is 50% larger than known specimens of Khaan, Conchoraptor and Ingenia, which may indicate that Citipati was a relatively large oviraptorid, up to 3 m (10ft) in length. [source Gunter Vanacker]