Open Paleo

Compsognathus

Wagner, 1861 komp-SOG-na-thus /kɒmpˈsɒɡnəθəs/

From Greek kompsos (κομψός) meaning 'elegant/refined/dainty' and Greek gnathos (γνάθος) meaning 'jaw'. Full meaning: 'elegant jaw' or 'dainty jaw'.

154.8–143.1 million years ago Kimmeridgian–Tithonian, Late Jurassic
Late Jurassic stages

Compsognathus is a genus of small, bipedal, carnivorous theropod dinosaur. Members of its single species Compsognathus longipes could grow to around the size of a chicken. They lived about 150 million years ago, during the Tithonian age of the late Jurassic period, in what is now Europe. Paleontologists have found two well-preserved fossils, one in Germany in the 1850s and the second in France more than a century later. Today, C. longipes is the only recognized species, although the French specimen was once thought to belong to a separate species named C. corallestris.

Diagnosis

  1. Elongated, slender skull with long, slender snout portion
  2. Extraordinarily long and arch-like neck after the manner of a bird, with approximately 10-11 cervical vertebrae
  3. Short forelimbs only half as long as hind limbs
  4. Extraordinarily long lower legs, three times as long as forearm
  5. Very long and robust hind feet with five digits

Species

Compsognathus longipes Wagner, 1861

Type species

From Latin 'longipes' meaning 'long-footed', referring to the long legs of this small theropod.

Holotype
SNSB-BSPG AS I 563 , Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie
Material
Nearly complete articulated skeleton preserved on its right side, with skull and mandibles, the complete vertebral column (minus the distal tail), ribs, gastralia, pectoral girdle, both forelimbs, pelvis, and both hindlimbs; some regions preserved only as impressions.
Horizon
Painten Formation, Kimmeridgian–Tithonian, Late Jurassic , 154.8–143.1 million years ago
Locality
Bavaria, Germany Reisdorf and Wuttke (2012) narrow the locality to three candidates, Jachenhausen in the Painten Basin or Kapfelberg and Goldberg near Kelheim, and favor Kapfelberg on the strength of its find record. All three lie within the Painten Formation, even if the exact site is unknown.

Synonyms

  • Compsognathus corallestris junior subjective

    Erected by Bidar, Demay and Thomel (1972) for the larger French Canjuers specimen; Ostrom (1978) synonymized it with Compsognathus longipes.

References

  1. Wagner, J. A. (1861). Neue Beiträge zur Kenntniss der urweltlichen Fauna des lithographischen Schiefers [New contributions to the knowledge of the ancient fauna of the lithographic slates]. Abhandlungen der königlichen bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaft, II Classe 9(1): 65-124. wagner1861a
  2. Reisdorf, A. G.; Wuttke, M. (2012). Re-evaluating Moodie's opisthotonic-posture hypothesis in fossil vertebrates. Part I: reptiles - the taphonomy of the bipedal dinosaurs Compsognathus longipes and Juravenator starki from the Solnhofen Archipelago (Jurassic, Germany). Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments 92(1): 119-168.

    Places all three candidate localities for the holotype within the Painten Formation, settling the unit without settling the site.

    reisdorf2012a
  3. Ostrom, J. H. (1978). The osteology of Compsognathus longipes. Zitteliana 4: 73-118.

    Definitive osteological redescription of the holotype; synonymizes the French Compsognathus corallestris with C. longipes and finds no evidence of feather impressions on the holotype slab.

    ostrom1978a
  4. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Theropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate.

    jones2026c
  5. Bidar, A.; Demay, L.; Thomel, G. (1972). Compsognathus corallestris, nouvelle espèce de dinosaurien théropode du Portlandien de Canjuers (Sud-est de la France) [Compsognathus corallestris, a new species of theropod dinosaur from the Portlandian of Canjuers (southeastern France)]. Annales du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Nice 1(1): 1-34. bidar1972a