Citipati

MEANING: Funeral pyre lord

PERIOD: Late Cretaceous

CONTINENT: Asia

Citipati is among the largest oviraptorids, estimated to have been around 2.5 m in length, and weighing about 80 kg. Its skull was short with a characteristic crest, and a toothless horny beak. Individuals have been found in brooding positions atop nests of eggs, helping to solidify the link between non-avian dinosaurs and birds.

Citipati is from the Late Cretaceous. The Cretaceous is the third and final geological period of the Mesozoic Era, with the Late Cretaceous making up roughly the second half of it, lasting from about 100 to 66 million years ago. It was a time of significant evolutionary change, with dinosaurs reaching their greatest diversity before the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.

The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, though the Late Cretaceous experienced a global cooling trend, caused by falling levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The continents were nearing their present positions, but high sea levels flooded low-lying regions, turning Europe into an archipelago, and forming the Western Interior Seaway in North America. These seas were home to a variety of marine reptiles, including mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, while pterosaurs and birds shared the skies.

On land, dinosaurs continued to thrive and diversify during the Late Cretaceous, producing many of the most well-known groups, including tyrannosaurs, hadrosaurs, and pachycephalosaurs. Established Cretaceous dinosaur clades like the ceratopsians, ankylosaurs, and dromaeosaurs continued to flourish. Sauropod species consisted almost exclusively of titanosaurs, which seemed to be confined to the Southern Hemisphere for much of the Late Cretaceous. Flowering plants and grasses diversified and spread, becoming the dominant flora similar to what we see today.

The Cretaceous (along with the Mesozoic) ended with the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event, a large mass extinction in which many groups, including non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and large marine reptiles, died out. This event, likely triggered by an asteroid impact, is marked by the abrupt K-Pg boundary, a distinct geologic layer separating the Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras. In its aftermath, mammals and avian dinosaurs rapidly diversified, becoming the dominant land animals of the Cenozoic Era.

Citipati is an oviraptorosaur. Oviraptorosauria is a group of feathered theropod dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period of what are now Asia and North America. They are known for their short, beaked, parrot-like skulls and bony crests that many had atop the head. They ranged in size from the turkey-sized Caudipteryx, to the 8-meter-long, 1.4-ton Gigantoraptor.

Oviraptorosaurs are closely related to birds. They had shortened beaklike jaws, and few or no teeth. The long hands typically had three long fingers each. Their tails are very short compared to other maniraptorans, and show evidence of fused vertebrae, which imply the presence of a fan of feathers. Fossilized remains have been found with impressions of well developed feathers, most notably on the wings and tail, suggesting that they functioned at least partially for display.

A number of oviraptorid specimens have been discovered in a nesting position similar to that of modern birds. The arms of these specimens are positioned in such a way that they could perfectly cover their eggs if they had small wings and a substantial covering of feathers.