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Citipes

Say it: SIT-ih-peez

Name means: “fleet-footed”1

Ate: A bit of everythingOdd feathered dinosLate Cretaceous

Citipes was a small, fast-running dinosaur that lived in what is now Canada and the USA. It had a beak like a parrot and probably ate plants and small animals. Scientists think it was covered in feathers.1

Lived

84 to 66 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Alberta, Canada and Montana, USA3

Food

A bit of everything3

Length

1.5 to 2.5 m1

estimated, based on related caenagnathids

Weight

10 kg to 20 kg1

Height

0.5 to 0.8 m1

at the hips

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 1.5 bicycles in a rowas long as 14 bananas end to endas heavy as 5 house catsas heavy as 4 watermelons

How big was Citipes compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Citipes was named in 2020, but its fossils were first discovered in 1926 and were thought to belong to other dinosaurs like Ornithomimus.1

A fossil of a young Gorgosaurus was found with the legs of at least two Citipes inside its stomach, showing that Citipes was hunted by this larger dinosaur.1

The Citipes legs inside the Gorgosaurus were from babies less than one year old, and the Gorgosaurus seemed to prefer eating the muscular hind legs.1

Citipes had a fused ankle and strong leg muscles, which made it a very fast runner.1

One Citipes fossil shows a broken hip bone that had healed, meaning the animal survived a serious injury.1

Citipes lived alongside two other similar dinosaurs, Caenagnathus and Chirostenotes, but they were different sizes and probably ate different foods to avoid competing.1

AI-made picture of Citipes — An AI-made picture of how Citipes might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Citipes

?How big was Citipes?

Citipes was a small dinosaur, roughly the size of an emu when fully grown. The juveniles found in the Gorgosaurus stomach were about the size of a turkey.2

?What did Citipes eat?

Citipes probably ate plants and small animals, since it had a beak like a parrot. It lived alongside two similar dinosaurs that ate different foods to avoid competing.1

?Did Citipes have feathers?

Yes, scientists think Citipes was covered in feathers, like many other bird-like dinosaurs. It was a caenagnathid, a type of feathered theropod.1

?Was Citipes hunted by other dinosaurs?

Yes, a fossil of a young Gorgosaurus was found with the legs of at least two Citipes inside its stomach, showing that Gorgosaurus hunted Citipes.1 2

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Myth buster

Myth: Citipes is often confused with the dinosaur Citipati, which has a similar name.

Truth: Citipes and Citipati are different dinosaurs. Citipati is an oviraptorid from Mongolia, while Citipes is a caenagnathid from North America.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Citipes
Named by: Funston 20203
Group: Odd feathered dinos
Family / clade: Caenagnathidae3
Classification: Theropoda > Oviraptorosauria3
Age of the rocks: 84 to 66 million years (Campanian / Maastrichtian)3
Rock formations: Dinosaur Park, Hell Creek3
Countries: Canada, USA3
Fossil records: 12 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The first Citipes fossils were found in 1926 in Alberta, Canada, by a University of Toronto expedition. They were named Ornithomimus elegans by William Parks in 1933, but later moved to their own genus Citipes by Gregory Funston in 2020.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly what Citipes ate. It had a beak but no teeth, so it may have eaten plants, small animals, or both.1

Where the facts come from

Citipes (en.wikipedia.org)
Young tyrannosaur found with baby dinosaurs in its stomach | CBC News (cbc.ca)
Citipes in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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