What is Ornitholestes?
{{italictitle}} {{taxobox | color = lightblue | name = ''Ornitholestes'' | fossil_range = [[Upper Jurassic]] | image = Ornitholestes hermanni -American Natural History Museum-6.jpg | image_width = 200px | image_caption = This is the only fossil of ''Ornitholestes'' ([[AMNH]]) | regnum = [[Animalia]] | classis = [[Sauropsida]] | superordo = [[Dinosauria]] | ordo = [[Saurischia]] | subordo = [[Theropoda]] | unranked_familia = [[Coelurosauria]] | genus = '''''Ornitholestes''''' | genus_authority = [[Henry Fairfield Osborn|Osborn]], 1903 }} '''''Ornitholestes''''' was a [[carnivorous]] [[dinosaur]] which lived in the [[Upper Jurassic]] period about 156{{ndash}}145 million years ago. It was about 2 metres long (6.6 feet), half of which was its long tail. Only one specimen of it has ever been found. It is one of a group of small, fast-running dinosaurs which are classified as early [[Coelurosaur]]s. It is known from a partial [[skeleton]] found near [[Medicine Bow]], [[Wyoming]], in 1900. It was described by [[Paleontology|paleontologist]] [[Henry Fairfield Osborn|Henry F. Osborn]] in 1903. == Description == ''Ornitholestes'' was a [[bipedal]] runner. Its small head suggests it ate small mammals, lizards, frogs, and hatchling dinosaurs. It could grasp prey with both hands. It is likely that all coelurosaurs had feathers.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter & Osmólska, Halszka |title= The Dinosauria |year=2004 |url=https://archive.org/details/dinosauriandedit00weis |publisher= 2nd ed, University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24209-8 |author=Holtz, Thomas R.; Molnar, Ralph E. & Currie, Philip J. 2004 |chapter=Basal Tetanurae|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dinosauriandedit00weis/page/71 71]–110}}</ref> == Similar dinosaurs == ''[[Coelurus]]'', ''[[Compsognathus]]'', ''[[Tanycolagreus]]''. == References == {{reflist}} {{biology-stub}} [[category:Coelurosaurs]]