Compsognathus

Compsognathus is a genus of small, lightly built theropod dinosaurs known from Late Jurassic Europe. Its fossils helped establish that some dinosaurs were small, agile predators.

Theropoda: Theropoda is a dinosaur group that includes birds and extinct bipedal carnivores. Compsognathus belongs to this broad group of mostly bipedal dinosaurs.
Solnhofen Limestone: The Solnhofen Limestone is a Late Jurassic fossil deposit in Bavaria, Germany, famous for exceptionally preserved organisms. The German Compsognathus specimen came from this fossil-rich formation.
Johann A. Wagner: Johann Andreas Wagner was a German zoologist who described Compsognathus in the nineteenth century. Wagner named the genus from the first known specimen in 1859.
Tyrannosaurus: Tyrannosaurus is a genus of large tyrannosaurid theropod dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of western North America. Its enormous body size contrasts with Compsognathus’s small, lightly built form.
Compsognathidae: Compsognathidae is a family of small theropod dinosaurs known mainly from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Compsognathus is the namesake genus of this family.
Canjuers fossil site: The Canjuers fossil site is a Late Jurassic locality in southeastern France that has yielded dinosaur remains. A French Compsognathus skeleton broadened the genus’s known geographic record.
Joseph Oberndorfer: Joseph Oberndorfer was a physician and fossil collector associated with the discovery of the first Compsognathus specimen. His collection supplied the specimen that Wagner described.
Coelophysis: Coelophysis is a genus of slender theropod dinosaurs from the Late Triassic of North America. This similarly small theropod offers a comparison without implying close relationship.
Manus (anatomy): The manus is the hand or forelimb extremity of a vertebrate. Its hand bones are among the features used to compare Compsognathus with other theropods.
Archaeopteryx: Archaeopteryx is a Late Jurassic bird-like dinosaur known from exceptionally preserved fossils in Germany. Its Solnhofen fossils share a deposit with Compsognathus and illuminate Jurassic theropod diversity.

Linked from 3 pages