| Othnielia Temporal range: Late Jurassic, 150 Ma |
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| Othnielia, North American Museum of Ancient Life. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Ornithischia |
| Suborder: | Cerapoda |
| Genus: | Othnielia Galton, 1977 |
| Species | |
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Othnielia is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur, named after its original describer, Professor Othniel Charles Marsh, an American paleontologist of the 19th century. The taxon, Othnielia rex, was named by Peter Galton in 1977 from a species Marsh (1877) called Nanosaurus rex.[1]
Remains assigned to Othnielia have been found in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado in rocks of the Late Jurassic age (Oxfordian-Tithonian) Morrison Formation,[2] but with Galton's 2007 revision of Morrison ornithischians, the only definite remains are YPM 1875 (the holotype femur of "Nanosaurus" 'rex') and possibly some other associated postcranial bits. He considered the femur undiagnostic and thus Othnielia to be a dubious name, and removed two partial skeletons to the new genus Othnielosaurus.[3] It remains to be seen if this will be widely accepted, but this sort of taxonomic decision has much precedent (for example, Marasuchus versus Lagosuchus).
Without the remains now included in Othnielosaurus, this animal is dubious, and can only be described in generalities based on similar animals. It was relatively small for a dinosaur, at around 1.5 to 2 metres (4.9 to 6.6 ft) long, and 10 kilograms (22 lb) in weight, and an agile bipedal herbivore with proportionally small arms and long legs.[2] Animals of this genus were included in the novel Jurassic Park as "othys", tree-climbing small herbivores, although there is no evidence for this kind of behavior.
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Only the original holotype of Othnielia and two partial skeletons were specifically dealt with in Galton's paper, leaving unsettled the assignment of several other specimens that have appeared in the literature. Included among these are a nearly complete specimen in the Aathal Museum nicknamed "Barbara",[4] and a dentary (MWC 5822, again referred to O. rex).[5] Skeletons identified as Othnielia are also on display at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Kathleen Brill and Kenneth Carpenter reported a baby ornithopod, possibly Othnielia rex from the Morrison Formation at Garden Park, Colorado.[6] The specimen is speculated to be immature on the basis of its small bones, unfused neural arches, and the ends of its long bones are "spongy and incompletely formed."[6] The specimen is catalogued as DMNH 21716.[7] The skeleton was encased in five blocks of maroon sandstone.[7] If the specimen is truly O. rex, it is about one third the size of a known adult specimen.[8] However, the chronological age of the specimen could not be estimated because Othnielia eggs and hatchlings were unknown.[8]