Dinosaur
Citipati
Several specimens have been found on their nests, including the one nicknamed "Big Momma."
Several Citipati fossils preserve the adult on the nest, an unusual scene from the past.
Three stages. One companion.
Game artwork
AI-generated, stylized game illustrations. These designs and growth stages are imaginative, not scientific reconstructions.
Citipati at a glance
- Diet
- Diet debated
- Its beak and jaws have led to different feeding hypotheses. A dinosaur’s name does not prove that it ate eggs.
- When it lived
- Cretaceous
- Group
- Oviraptoridae
- Oviraptorids
- Fossil locations
- Djadokhta, Mongolia
- Places where fossils have been found
Beyond the game
The real Citipati
One of those specimens received the nickname "Big Momma." The relationship between the body and the eggs provides information that an isolated bone would not have: it allows us to investigate how the animal was located next to the nest.
Citipati is one of the best-known oviraptorids thanks to the quality of its fossils. It was formally described in 2001, after several finds had been confused with Oviraptor. Separating the two genera helps connect each discovery to the right animal.
This grouping describes evolutionary relationships. Its members share ancestors; they do not form a chain in which one must turn into another.
Fossil discoveries
Selected fossil records · present-day map
Map references
Map: Natural Earth, public domain. Fossil records: linked collections and publications.Sources & text credits
Explore the references behind this profile.
- Citipati osmolskae
Wikipedia contributors · Spanish source
Educational text adapted and translated from this article by Wikipedia contributors. The revision link, when captured in the source catalogue, identifies the source version.
- Citipati
Wikipedia contributors · English source
Educational text adapted and translated from this article by Wikipedia contributors. The revision link, when captured in the source catalogue, identifies the source version.
- Oviraptoridae
Wikipedia contributors · English source
Educational text adapted and translated from this article by Wikipedia contributors. The revision link, when captured in the source catalogue, identifies the source version.
- Living birds
Wikipedia contributors · English source
Educational text adapted and translated from this article by Wikipedia contributors. The revision link, when captured in the source catalogue, identifies the source version.
Educational text adapted in English from the existing Wikipedia-backed Dinosgacha catalogue and linked articles by Wikipedia contributors.
Existing English translations have been selected and arranged for this encyclopedia. Repeated period and diet text is omitted where those fields already carry it. Unknown facts remain unfilled; unreviewed geological age phrases are omitted and period labels replace numerical ages.
The adapted educational text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0. This text license does not apply to the game illustrations.