Movies - Procompsognathus

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Procompsognathus triassicus (meaning "before pretty jaw from the Triassic period") was a small, speedy theropod dinosaur. This meat-eater lived during the late Triassic period, about 222 to 219 million years ago. It probably ate insects and lizards in a relatively dry, inland environment. Procompsognathus was named by Eberhard Fraas in 1913. The type species is P. triassicus.

Anatomy: Procompsognathus may have been about 3.8 feet (1.2 m) long, weighing roughly 2.2 pounds (1 kg). A biped, it had long hind legs, short arms, large clawed hands (which it used to catch prey), a long pointed snout with many pointed teeth, and a stiff, pointed tail.

Fossils: A very incomplete Procompsognathus skeleton was found in Württemberg, Germany.

Jurassic Park

In Michael Crichton's novel, "Jurassic Park", Procompsognathus are one of the species bred in the park. However, it seems in the movies they were replaced with the distantly related coelurosaur Compsognathus. In fact, Compsognathus came up to the waist, so one can only assume that in the movies, "Compy" does indeed refer to Procompsognathus.

They were given rather vicious personalities even though they are scavengers; with dozens of them gathering together in a pack and bringing down a full-grown human man.

In the book the Lost World it is mentioned that these dinosaurs are slightly poisonous, their bites causing one to become slightly numbed and drowsy.

Recently, a new discovery has suggested that Procompsognathus is actually a lizard, not a dinosaur, and since the discovery it went back and forth between a dinosaur and a lizard.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Procompsognathus ]

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