Citipati

Filed under Cretaceous dinosaurs · Types of Dinosaurs editorial team

Order: Saurischia · Suborder: Theropoda · Infraorder: Oviraptorosauria · Family: Oviraptoridae

Citipati was a medium-sized oviraptorid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Mongolia, reaching an estimated length of around nine feet (2.7 meters). Its name draws on Sanskrit roots — citi, meaning "funeral pyre," and pati, meaning "lord" — connecting it to the Citipati of Tibetan Buddhist tradition, a pair of skeletal deities associated with cemeteries and the funeral pyre. The dinosaur belonged to the family Oviraptoridae and was an omnivore, equipped with a tall crested skull and a toothless beak well suited to a varied diet. Current paleontological understanding holds that its body would have been feathered.

Citipati is perhaps best known for a series of remarkable fossil discoveries that captured adults sitting directly atop their nests in a brooding posture strikingly similar to that of modern birds. These specimens rank among the most compelling evidence ever found that certain dinosaurs actively cared for their eggs rather than abandoning them after laying. The fossils also helped overturn a long-held misconception: oviraptorids had previously been assumed to be egg thieves preying on the nests of other dinosaurs, but the brooding posture confirmed they were instead attentive parents guarding clutches of their own.

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Reference background: Natural History Museum, London — Dinosaurs; Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Dinosaurs; American Museum of Natural History — Dinosaurs & Fossils. Figures are typical published ranges; taxonomy follows the source era and modern consensus is noted where it differs. See our sources & fact-check policy.

Related dinosaurs

Other dinosaurs from the Oviraptoridae family.