Oviraptor philoceratops OH-vih-RAP-tor

"Egg thief (a mistaken name)"

Oviraptor silhouette — silhouette · Cy Marchant (CC-BY) via PhyloPic

Length: 1.6 m (5.2 ft) — About 1.6 m long, ~30 kg — turkey-sized with a beak and crest.
Period: Late Cretaceous (75–71 Mya)
Place: Asia · Mongolia
Food: Omnivore — Probably plants, eggs, and small animals — the parrot-like beak suggests crushing hard food.
Clade: Oviraptorosauria Dinosauria Saurischia Theropoda Coelurosauria Crested, beaked theropods that brooded their eggs.

The "egg thief" wrongly accused: it was guarding its own nest, not raiding one.

Oviraptor reconstruction by PaleoNeolitic — Reconstruction · PaleoNeolitic (CC-BY)

Oviraptor was named ‘egg thief’ in 1924 because the first skeleton was found near a nest, and scientists assumed it was raiding eggs. Seventy years later they realized the eggs were actually its own — Oviraptor was a brooding parent, sitting on the nest like a modern bird. The name was wrong, but the rules of naming species say the name sticks.

More about Oviraptor

Discovery

Named by Henry Fairfield Osborn · 1924 · the Djadokhta Formation at the Bayn Dzak locality (also known as Flaming Cliffs), in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia

The first remains were collected in 1923 during the Third Central Asiatic expedition led by Roy Chapman Andrews. Osborn named the genus the following year from the holotype, which was found lying over a nest of approximately 15 eggs.

The genus name is Latin for "egg seizer" or "egg thief", and the species name philoceratops was intended to reinforce that view, indicating a supposed preference for ceratopsian eggs.

Henry Fairfield Osborn. The North American paleontologist who named Oviraptor in 1924 (along with Saurornithoides and Velociraptor) and who, based on the holotype's position over a nest, coined the egg-thief interpretation that the name preserves.

What did Oviraptor actually eat?

Its diet is debated. Barsbold argued in 1977 that the robust lower jaws and horny beak were strong enough to crush the shells of mollusks like clams, while Smith in 1990 found shearing rather than crushing surfaces and suggested leaves may have been an important part of the diet. A lizard found inside the holotype in 1995 complicates any single answer.

Was Oviraptor feathered like a bird?

It is described as a feathered oviraptorid. As evidenced in related oviraptorids, its arms were covered by elongated feathers, and its tail ended in a pygostyle that supported a fan of large feathers.

What we know

Toothless beak with a crested skull — looked a bit like a giant parrot.
Brooded its own eggs in a circular nest, sitting on top like a modern bird.
Feathered, almost certainly — multiple oviraptorosaur relatives preserve feathers.
Closely related to Citipati, the more famous brooding specimens from Mongolia.

What we guess

What the parrot-like beak was for — eggs, plants, small animals, or a mix.
The exact shape of its head crest, since the type specimen is partial.
Whether the crest was for display, species recognition, or sound production.