Othnielia

Othnielia is a type of small, herbivorous dinosaur that existed in North America during the late Jurassic period. Its remains were first found by famous paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877, however they were first called Nanosaurus rex. It wasn't until exactly 100 years later, in 1977, that Peter Galton would name them Othnielia, which still remains to this day.

Description
A description for this animal is hard to make out, as most of the remains about this dinosaur have since been reclassified as Othnielosaurus. However, based on other ornithopods, it can be assumed that Othnielia was a small, fast running, bipedal herbivore that has short arms and long legs.

History
In 1877, amateur paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh discovered a set of remains of a dinosaur. Those remains were referred to him as Nanosaurus rex, based on a femur now called YPM 1875. Exactly 100 years later, in 1977, another paleontologist, named Peter Galton, decided to create a new genus for the femur, as he thought it couldn't be assigned to Nanosaurus. That genus would later be called "Othnielia".

However, 30 years later, in 2007, Galton found out that all of the additional fossils assigned to Othnielia didn't match up the holotype femur. So he decided to create a new genus for these additional remains, called Othnielosaurus, leaving the femur as the holotype, and only remain of Othnielia, making the animal a nomen dubium.

In popular culture
Othnielia was featured in the novel Jurassic Park, and are referred to as "othys". They are also shown to be capable of climbing trees and jumping over fences, which has recently been disproved about ornithopods.

Fast facts

 * Special abitlity: Fast running
 * Description: Highly dubious ornithopod from the late Jurassic of North America.
 * Diet: Low-growing plants
 * Weight: 22 pounds (10 kilograms)
 * Meaning of name: "animal that Othniel described"
 * Fun fact: Almost all of Othnielia ' s remains have now been transferred to Othnielosaurus.
 * Classification: Neornithischia
 * In popular culture: The Jurassic Park novel
 * Size: 4 feet long (1.3 meters)

Navigation
Species number: #002

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