ornitholestid

English

Noun

ornitholestid (plural ornitholestids)

1. (zoology, very rare) Any member of the family †Ornitholestidae, now superseded by family †Compsognathidae.
   • 1975, Dudley W. Bolyard, Deep drilling frontiers of the central Rocky Mountains, Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, →OCLC, page 114:

     E. H. Colbert (pers. commun. to Harshbarger, 1957) suggested that Segisaurus looks very much like an ornitholestid; Ornitholestes is found in the Morrison Formation (Jurassic).

   • 1985, MK Brett-Surman, “A new family of bird-like dinosaurs linking Laurasia and Gondwanaland”, in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, volume 5, number 2, page 133:

     In proportions, and especially in their uncompressed central metatarsal, Avisaurus retains the conservative condition seen in such basal theopods as Coelophysis and Ceratosaurus (Fig. 2), and thus retains a basal condition compared to derived theropods and Archaeopteryx, which have proximally pinched central metatarsi (eg, compsognathids, ornitholestids, allosaurids, tyrannosaurids, elmisaurids, ornithomimids, dromaeosaurs and saurornithoidids; Paul, 1984).

   • 1988, Gregory S. Paul, Predatory Dinosaurs of the World: A Complete Illustrated Guide, Simon & Schuster, →OCLC:

     Aublysodonts and tyrannosaurs appear to have been the culmination of the ornitholestid-allosaur-tyrannosaur group.