Long Footed Delicate-Jaw

Compsognathus longipes

(Wagner, 1859)
 

    The semiarid islands of Jurassic Europe support no large animals and few dinosaurs.  Most of their fauna consists of lizards other small vertebrates.  However, some dinosaurs, such as Compsognathus longipes, thrive in these places.

    A very small dinosaur, C. longipes, is an unspecialized island-hopping predator.  The species is widespread throughout the European Islands where it hunts lizards such as Bavarisaurus,  birds such as Archeaopteryx, and fish.  The teeth of C. longipes are small and the front teeth are completely unserrated (Paul 298).  It hunts no large prey so there is no need for the slicing dentition of Allosaurus or Ornitholestes.

    C. longipes's dermal covering, keratin fibers similar to mammalian hair, is a hallmark of its clade, which includes birds.  In C. longipes, this hair-like covering functions as a visual display and not for insulation as its island habitat is warm and balmy.  Usually, the fibers lie flat across along the skin, but when the animal becomes agitated, the hairs stand up, causing the animal to look much larger than it actually is. This display is also involved with its mating rituals.

    Both C. longipes and its contemporary, Archeaopteryx, are descended from a group of feathered dinosaurs that migrated west from Asia in the Middle Jurassic.  Compsognathus's particular clade, comsognathidae, is only one group of these dinosaurs.  In Early Cretaceous China, the clade will produce  Sinosauropteryx, which has a mane of hair-like fibers running along its back.

Thanks to Peter Buchholz for helping me with the latin translation of the name, and Ray Stanford, of cource.
 

Other sites containing pertinent information:

• Articles about tyrannosaurs by Jeff Poling are:
• The debate of Feathered vs. scaly skin in dinosaurs in Jeff Poling's DINOSAUR webpages. (doesn't discuss Compsognathus specifically, but includes small speech by Gregory S. Paul, author of Predatory Dinosaurs of the World).
• The debate of Sinosauropteryx prima proper? in Jeff Poling's DINOSAUR ONLINE. (discusses whether Sinosauropteryx is really just a species of Compsognathus).
• A skull of Compsognathus from QILONG webpages by Jaime A. Headden. (located at the bottom of the page).
• The Compsognathus page, from T. Mike Keesey's DINOSAURICON. (full of accurate text and pictures, as always)
• John Bindon's Compsognathus painting
• John R. Hutchinson's coelurosaur page
• Shiraishi Mineo's Compsognathus  picture
• DinoData's Compsognathuspage
• Gregory S. Paul's (!) Compsognathusskeletal reconstruction.
• Joshua Knuth's Compsognathus  sculpture
• PaleoBase's Compsognathus  page
• John Conway's Compsognathus sketch
• Alan Smith's Compsognathus sculpture
• Boban Filipovic's Compsognathus model
• Dinosaur Encyclopedia, by Don Lessem and Donald Glut, published 1993 by Random House
• Predatory Dinosaurs of the World, a Complete Illustrated Guide, by Gregory S. Paul, published in 1988 by Simon and Schuster.
• "How many fingers did  Compsognathus have?", an article by Tracy L. Ford (tlford@ix.netcom.com) in the Feb/March addition of the Prehistoric Times (pages14-16)

 
© Daniel Bensen 2000
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