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Oviraptor is one of paleontology's most famous cases of mistaken identity. This small, bird-like was discovered in 1923 in Mongolia's Gobi Desert, found near a nest of eggs that scientists assumed belonged to the Protoceratops. The name "egg thief" stuck, painting this dinosaur as a nest-raiding villain for decades.
In reality, Oviraptor was almost certainly a devoted parent. Later discoveries of related oviraptorids found fossilized in positions over their own nests revealed that these dinosaurs were caring for their eggs, not stealing them. The eggs found with the original specimen were likely Oviraptor's own, making its name one of the great misnomers in dinosaur science.
Oviraptor possessed a distinctive tall on its skull and a toothless, parrot-like beak — features that have sparked debate about its diet. Some researchers suggest it crushed hard foods like shellfish or eggs (perhaps its own damaged ones), while others propose a more omnivorous lifestyle including plants and small prey. Its powerful jaws could have handled a variety of foods.
The genus was named by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1924 based on the specimen collected during Roy Chapman Andrews' legendary Mongolian expeditions. Despite many specimens being attributed to Oviraptor over the years, only the single partial skeleton is definitively assigned to this genus — making this famous dinosaur surprisingly poorly known.