Critter of the Week: Compsognathus

| Patricia Bujard

Meet Twig. He’s a lot more travel-sized, if you’re looking for a dinosaur that’s not a bird.  He makes up for his size by being extra fluffy and huggable.  Can you resist that fuzzy tail?

Twig.jpg

Twig may be small, but he’s not nearly as teeny as most “educational” sources would have you believe.  Almost all the dinosaur books I’ve come across claim this little guy as the smallest dinosaur. “As big as a chicken” is the phrase often used.

Twig would have you know he’s the size of a turkey, not a chicken (makes a big difference if you’re standing right next to it).  All those other reports are actually based off a German fossil of a juvenile compy, not an adult.  Another well-preserved fossil was discovered in France in the 1970’s, but paleontologists weren’t sure it was a compy until more recent years.

Twig doesn’t mind the confusion though.  He’s not really bothered by much as long as he can snatch a lizard or two out of the bushes. 🙂

Just for fun, here’s a picture of Jurassic Park’s Compsognathus.  This picture is from the Jurassic Park Wikia, but did not have any credit associated with it.  It looks like it was cut from a screenshot of Jurassic Park: The Lost World.  It’s really quite a nice little puppet, and the film makers were able to give it the very lifelike, birdy movements described in the first book of the series.

thrash

The model has a few glaring inaccuracies, but I really enjoyed watching it in the film anyway.

  • Shrinkwrapped skin on muscle on bone, with no soft tissue in between.
  • Two fingers instead of three
  • Broken bunny arms
  • The lack of feathers is not technically inaccurate, because some relatives preserve feathers, and others preserve scales on the tail. So it’s a coin toss really, at least until we can find more data.  🙂

Making progress…

Just inching along on a couple of big projects.  I’ll reveal more as I get closer. 😀

 

Coming Next Week…

Why, oh why must everyone call her ugly?  I really don’t know.  She may not be winning any beauty contests, but she’s a real sweet heart with anyone she meets. 🙂

Share your guess in the comments! He’s one of the critters over on the critter page. 🙂

9 thoughts on “Critter of the Week: Compsognathus”

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  4. No, I don’t think I can resist that floofiness. :3 I wonder if he’s as soft and cuddly as he looks! It’s funny, one time I heard that compsognathus was the poodle of dinosaurs. 😛

    Ugly? Hmm. Is it some sort of fish?

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    1. Hi Brownie! I know I read that on Wikipedia, but I’m not sure if I’ve seen it somewhere else.

      It’s most appropriate, as poodles (full-size, not toy) are excellent family dogs. Twig is also great with kids. Perfect size really. 🙂

      I was thinking of drawing a fish, but decided on something else instead. This one is often reported as the “ugliest” of its kind. Unfair really.

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