Dinosaur
Compsognathus
A small dinosaur with an outsized reputation
Two unusually well-preserved fossils made Compsognathus a familiar example of how small a non-avian dinosaur could be.
Three stages. One companion.
Game artwork
AI-generated, stylized game illustrations. These designs and growth stages are imaginative, not scientific reconstructions.
Compsognathus at a glance
- Diet
- Meat eater
- Interpreted as a consumer of other animals. Hunting and scavenging are compatible ways to obtain food.
- When it lived
- Late Jurassic
- Geological period represented by its fossil record. Dates and assignments can be refined through further study.
- Group
- Coelurosauria
- Coelurosaurs
- Fossil locations
- Germany, France
- Places where fossils have been found
Beyond the game
The real Compsognathus
Compsognathus was a small meat-eating dinosaur that walked on two legs. Two especially well-preserved fossils, from Germany and France, made it an important reference for the anatomy of small theropods. It lived during the Late Jurassic, alongside much larger kinds of dinosaur.
For many years it featured among the smallest known dinosaurs. The German specimen was traditionally compared with a chicken in size, but it was probably a young animal. Comparing the size of a juvenile with that of an adult can be misleading.
Its story shows why age matters when reconstructing a species. A beautifully preserved fossil can reveal much of an individual, yet still leave questions about growth and the full dimensions that other members of the same species reached.
An evolutionary clade whose members share ancestors. This grouping does not imply that one named dinosaur directly became another.
Fossil discoveries
Selected fossil records · present-day map
Map references
Map: Natural Earth, public domain. Fossil records: linked collections and publications.A note on the science
Smallest-dinosaur comparisons depend on the animal's age and on which fossils are known; a juvenile is not a fixed adult-size standard.
Sources & text credits
Explore the references behind this profile.
- Compsognathus longipes
Wikipedia contributors · Spanish source
Adapted and translated from Compsognathus longipes by Wikipedia contributors. See the linked revision for the source text and contributor history.
- Compsognathus
Wikipedia contributors · English source
Adapted and translated from Compsognathus by Wikipedia contributors. See the linked revision for the source text and contributor history.
- Coelurosauria
Wikipedia contributors · English source
Group information adapted from Wikipedia contributors.
Educational text adapted in English from the existing Wikipedia-backed Dinosgacha catalogue and the linked Wikipedia articles by Wikipedia contributors.
Translated, shortened and edited for this encyclopedia; uncertain interpretations are identified. Selected museum and research references supplement verification.
The adapted educational text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0. This text license does not apply to the game illustrations.