Compsognathus

Compsognathus longipes is a small theropod that is confirmed to be coming to Prehistoric Kingdom as a Mini-Exhibit animal.

In-Game[]

Description[]

Compsognathus in-game is a tiny fuzzy theropod covered in brown feathers with white highlights. It also bears a subtle blue patch near its eyes and a chinstrap of yellowish-blonde feathering beneath its lower jaw.

Management[]

Compsognathus is planned to be a Mini-Exhibit animal and will behave like typical animals in-game but with a more limited set of behaviors without hunting and ontogeny.

In-Game Trivia[]

Nigel Marven

Paleontology[]

The details of the initial discovery and recovery of the first Compsognathus specimen is unknown as it was initially a part of the private fossil collection of physician Joseph Orbendorfer. It has been proposed that the specimen was retrieved from a quarry waste pile due to weathering on the slab containing the skeleton, and it is likely from the famous Solnhofen Limestone, well known for exquisite specimens of animals such as Archaeopteryx, Pterodactylus, Rhamphorhynchus, Juravenator, Sciurumimus, Anurognathus, Dakosaurus, and many more. Orbendorfer lent the fossil to the paleontologist Johann A. Wagner, who published a discussion of the specimen in 1859 in which he coined the little reptile's name. Wagner initially viewed Compsognathus as a "most curious" lizard, not a dinosaur, and would later publish a more detailed description in 1861. Eventually the specimen would fall under the custody of the Munich paleontological state collection when they acquired Orbendorfer's collection in 1866.

Paleoecology[]

Compsognathus was a small and agile predator that would have preyed on various small animals found in its lagoonal shoreline environment, including the lizard Schoenesmahl dyspepsia which was named from lizard remains found preserved in the stomach of the Compsognathus holotype. The disarticulated nature of the lizard indicates that Compsognathus would have torn apart and consumed its prey using its claws and jaws in concert, not unlike the methods employed by modern birds of prey.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Compsognathus was the first non-volant Mini-Exhibit animal confirmed to be coming to the game
Its concept art was first showcased alongside details of an extensive Mini-Exhibit rework which would bring these animals more in-line with the rest of the animals in-game.
It is the second Mini-Exhibit animal from the Solnhofen Limestone to be featured in Prehistoric Kingdom, with the first being Archaeoperyx.
Compsognathus is often cited as the "smallest dinosaur", but since its discovery, a number of even smaller non-avian dinosaurs have been described, including Microraptor and Yi.