What it looked like
Oviraptor was a small, bird-like, omnivorous dinosaur. It was lightly built and fast-moving and it walked on two legs. It had a curved, s-shaped neck, a long tail, and short strong arms. It had curved claws on its three-fingered hands and three-toed feet. The claws on its large hands were about 8 cm long. Its fingers were long and grasping.

Its strangely-shaped, parrot-like head had a short, toothless beak and extremely powerful jaws, built for crushing action. Oviraptors had a small horn-like crest on its snout, probably used for a mating display.

What it ate
The Oviraptor was an omnivore, which means that it ate both plants and meat. This is unusual for dinosaurs. It probably ate meat, eggs, seeds, insects, and plants with its beak and powerful jaws.

How it moved around
Oviraptor walked on two long bird-like legs. It must have been a fast runner, because of its long legs and light weight.

How it probably behaved
Oviraptor (meaning "egg stealer") was thought at first to eat mostly eggs. In 1924, an Oviraptor fossil was found on top of some eggs, and people thought that it had been eating the eggs.

Recently, however, in Mongolia, paleontologists found some eggs very similar to those eggs found in 1924 and they were actually Oviraptor eggs. They now think the Oviraptor was probably a parent of the eggs in the nest, and not an egg stealer but a good parent.