|
The Oviraptor (Egg Thief) was first described
by Henry Fairfield Osborn during his 1920 expedition to Mongolia.
The skull of one of these dinosaurs was found crushed and on
the top of a nest of what was long believed to be  a nest of Protoceratops
eggs. Osborn speculated that the skull was crushed by an enraged
Ceratopsian parent who caught the the unfortunate "Raptor"
in the act of stealing eggs.
In 1993, a team of scientists from New
York's American Museum of Natural History returned to Mongolia
and found an elongated egg containing a baby Oviraptor and a
nest of eggs with the mother Oviraptor shielding her nest from
the unfortunate disaster which recorded the moment in time. Oviraptor
misnamed "Egg Thief" was, in fact, the original Mother
Dinosaur....a caring parent defending her nest !!!
|
