Oviraptor Tapestries
Description: Oviraptor was a small predatory dinosaur that lived in the Gobi Desert during the Late Cretaceous (around 75 million years ago). It was about 3 feet tall and 5 feet in length, and very lightly built, probably only weighing around 55 to 79 pounds, much like it’s modern bird relatives. Studies of earlier relatives suggest that they not only had feathers but had large display feathers on their tails that were likely used to woo potential mates. The discovery of Oviraptor embryos has allowed scientists to get a better idea of the biology of these animals and of dinosaur egg laying behavior, as well as their development.
Description: I have used as inspiration for this painting the famous fossil of 'Big Mamma', an oviraptor unearthed in the Ukhaa Tolgod of the Gobi Desert, who died trying to protect her nest. Truly, these small bird-like dinosaurs are inspirations to us all. First described in 1923 by Roy Chapman Andrews, director of the New York Natural History Museum and real-life inspiration for Indiana Jones, the name of this dinosaur literally means 'egg thief', as the fossilised animal was found close to a nest of prehistoric eggs. In the years since we have realised that these Mongolian dinosaurs were not thieves at all, and the eggs they were found lying upon were their own.
Description: Around 66 million years ago, in Late Cretaceous South Dakota, an odd bird-like creature darted it’s way through the thick overgrowth of a humid, swampy, coastal plain near the coast of an inland sea that only only exists now in the form of trace elements of chemical signatures, rock strata, and the fossil remains of the animals that lived and died on its shores and below its waves.
