Stereotypes affect how well a person evaluates a thing.
Take dinosaurs, for example: the dinosaurs we imagine are almost all tall and mighty, covered in scales, with a mouth that can swallow animals into their mouths, and who can cross trees several meters high with a single foot.
This is the stereotype of dinosaurs, which comes from the early Jurassic Park. In fact, there are many kinds of real dinosaurs, some are behemoths, and some resemble poultry. Some dinosaurs even looked like a big turkey, not only with colorful feathers, but also with the ability to fly.
Dinosaurs have lived for at least 65 million years, and humans have only discovered dinosaurs for two or three hundred years. Although science and technology are now advancing by leaps and bounds, it is still impossible to avoid some mistakes, and it took today's so-called "wronged" egg stealing dragon to be able to "sink the injustice" for a hundred years.
Where did the name Oviraptor dragon come from?
The name of the oviraptorosaur is a big oolong in the history of dinosaur research, and it is not only different from the dinosaurs we know, but even the name is wrong.
In 1923, the U.S. Central Asian expedition found a bunch of fossil eggs of protocephalus in the Gobi desert of the Mongolian plateau, and there was a theropod dinosaur fossil near his nest. Explorers speculate that the theropod dinosaur was an attempted egg stealer and was buried in the dunes by a sudden sandstorm.
The leaders of the Central Asian expedition gave the dinosaur a very disgraceful name, the horned oviraptorosaur, which in the vernacular is the oviraptorosaur who loved protocephras.
Unlike human names, animal names cannot be changed, and according to international animal law, once the name of an animal is determined, it cannot be changed.
Scientists have deduced layers that the physical characteristics of oviraptorosaurs were also long for better theft. For example, the forelimbs and claws are slender and flexible, in order to better pick up stolen eggs, and the mouth is very hard in order to peck the eggs. These body parts were used as "crime tools", and even the horned oviraptorosaur class became the "oviraptorosaur", dragging the entire family into the water by its own efforts.
In 1993, Professor Mark, a paleontologist at the Museum of History in New York, returned to the old path of the Central Asian expedition 60 years ago, and also found a complete dinosaur embryo fossil. After research, it was found that this embryo resembled a dinosaur egg found sixty years ago. The oviraptorosaur did not steal the eggs of the protocephalopods, but died protecting their own eggs.
In subsequent studies, some scientists also agreed with this view, clearing it of the crime of "theft" for a hundred years.
Oviraptorosaurus itself is closely related to birds, not only in appearance, but also in other behaviors. When a natural disaster strikes, the oviraptorosaur is laying eggs as usual, and because the wind and sand are too large, it buries its eggs in the desert and silently guards the nest to prevent other animals from invading.
The true appearance of the oviraptorosaur
The oviraptorosaur really resembles an ostrich and is two meters long. The pointed claws and long tail give it a strong ability to move and react quickly. In addition, it has a kangaroo-like tail to maintain its balance, and with two long hind legs, it can run fast on land and underwater. Its head is as small as a turkey's head, and it has a towering bony crown on the top of its head, which is very ostentatious.
Oviraptorosaurus was also a typical omnivorous dinosaur, whether it was leaf berries, small insects or aquatic creatures, it was his delicacy. Scientists have not found any meat in its stomach, why should it steal other people's eggs without even eating meat?
It turns out that dinosaurs also take turns hatching eggs
Adult oviraptorosaurs would dig a nest two meters wide and one meter deep. Each nest is seven or eight meters apart, and the oviraptorosaur parents will incubate the eggs with other oviraptorosaur parents as neighbors, in human terms, to take care of each other. Since they were not as tall as Tyrannosaurus rex, they used the power of nature to speed up the egg hatching process. For example, the leaves of plants are covered on these nests, and the heat generated by plant decay is used for natural hatching.
In 2020, a group of precious fossils of dinosaurs, embryos and egg nests were found in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, with a total of 24 eggs in the nest, arranged in three rings. Oviraptorosaur hatches much the same form as modern birds, with its forelimbs spreading downwards to cover the nest, and its hind limbs folded in the middle of the nest. Most animals incubate eggs by the mother, but this study found that the father was also involved. Females lose calcium after egg laying, and the role of the father is involved in protecting the nest and caring for the eggs laid.
At last
In December 2020, Chinese paleontologists cleared the "crime" of plagiarism for this new discovery in the Journal of Science.
The latest research confirms that all oviraptors not only do not steal eggs, but are also good parents who take turns taking care of their children.