Compsoganthus Skull Plaque

$12.00

Description

Compsoganthus Skull Plaque measures 5×3 inches and is museum quality polyurethane cast. Compsoganthus Skull Plaque is Made in the USA. Compsognathus longipes is the scientific name. Our precise skull can be used as a teaching tool, museum skull exhibit, home decor skull, or office decor skull.

Compsognathus longipes were small, bipedal animals with long hind legs and longer tails, which they used for balance during locomotion. The forelimbs were smaller than the hind limbs.

The hand bore two large, clawed digits and a third, smaller digit that may have been non-functional. Their delicate skulls were narrow and long, with tapered snouts. The skull had five pairs of skull openings, the largest of which was for the eye socket, with the eyes being larger in proportion to the rest of the skull.

Compsognathus longipes lower jaw was slender and had no mandibular fenestra, a hole in the side of the lower jawbone commonly seen in archosaurs. The teeth were small but sharp, suited for its diet of small vertebrates and possibly other small animals, such as insects.

Its front most teeth were unserrated, unlike those further back in the jaw which were flattened and more strongly recurved. Scientists have used these dental characteristics to identify Compsognathus longipes and its closest relatives.

The number of digits on the hand of Compsognathus longipes has been a source of debate. For much of its history, Compsognathus longipes was typically depicted with three digits, as is typical for theropods.

However, the type specimen only preserved phalanges from the first two digits, leading to the suggestion that Compsognathus longipes bore only two functional digits, with the third metacarpal being extremely slender and reduced. Study of the French specimen indicated that the third digit bore at least one or two small phalanges.

Although not recognized as such at the time of its discovery, Compsognathus longipes is the first theropod dinosaur known from a reasonably complete fossil skeleton.

Until the 1990s, it was the smallest known non-avialan dinosaur, with the preceding centuries incorrectly labelling them as the closest relative of Archaeopteryx.

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Additional information

Weight 2 lbs
Dimensions 5 × 3 in
Composoganthus Facts

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Family: †Compsognathidae
Subfamily: †Compsognathinae
Genus: †Compsognathus
Type species: †Compsognathus longipes
Conservation Status: Extinct