Ornitholestes was a species of theropod dinosaur that lived during the Jurassic period.
Characteristics[]
Ornitholestes was approximately three feet tall and four feet long, with a thin but agile body frame, long legs and forearms, and a thin, long skull equipped with very large eyes. Though a moderately fast and agile creature, Ornitholestes could be quickly brought down by shooting it directly in the neck with an electric dart, although shooting them in the side or below the neck would have little effect.
Ornitholestes were aggressive stalkers, which stalked their prey through the woods, and could be easily provoked into attacking. They also usually, when attacking small groups, tended to go after the smallest member under the calculation that it would be the weakest and easiest prey.
Incursions and encounters[]
Babes in the Woods[]
Two Ornitholestes came through an Anomaly into the woods on the northern side of Mount Seymour in the present. One of them encountered Bobby in the woods, and when it was aggravated by the flash of his camera, it attacked him and killed him by ripping his chest open with its jaws.
The Ornitholestes subsequently stalked a nearby cabin, where it eventually attacked Mac Rendell, Toby Nance and Natalie. When the three fled in a van, the Ornitholestes initially chased them, but eventually gave up when the van moved too fast for it to keep up. One of the Ornitholestes subsequently stalked Evan Cross, Dylan Weir and Angelika Finch through the woods, and eventually attacked and pursued Ange through the trees. Ange lured the Ornitholestes into an ambush, and Dylan knocked the creature out by shooting it directly in the neck with a taser dart. Evan, Ange and Dylan subsequently dragged the unconscious Ornitholestes through the woods in a bag in search of the Anomaly, while the other Ornitholestes stalked and followed them through the woods.
The remaining Ornitholestes eventually attacked, but when Evan shot it in the arm with a taser dart, the creature fell from a nearby cliff into a river below, though it survived the fall. After returning to shore, the Ornitholestes found Evan, Ange and Dylan again and attacked them again. However, when the trio fought off the Ornitholestes' attacks, the creature retreated from them through the woods back to the Anomaly, and fled back through to its home.
The Inquisition[]
After the Mount Seymour Anomaly incursion, at least one Ornitholestes was taken by Project Magnet and sent to their laboratory in Vancouver, where it was subjected to gruesome experiments and at some point died as a result.
Gallery[]
Promotional Images[]
Babes in the Woods[]
Real life[]
Ornitholestes (name meaning "bird robber") was a small, bipedal carnivore, which lived in what is now North America, about 154 million years ago. Currently, Ornitholestes is only known from one single partial skeleton found in 1900. It had relatively short neck and hind legs, although the forelimbs were long.
Trivia[]
- Due to its similar quills and nasal horn, the New World Ornitholestes was theorised, by some fans, to have possibly been based upon the Ornitholestes seen in Walking with Dinosaurs and its special, The Ballad of Big Al, which were created by Impossible Pictures who created Primeval as well.
Errors[]
- Ornitholestes was portrayed in New World had many differences to the real world dinosaur. These include:
- Pronated hands, which would have been impossible in real life for all theropod dinosaurs as they couldn't pivot their wrists without breaking them.
- It was much larger and bulkier than any known from fossils.
- Very little plumage aside from a small amount of quills on its back; while in real life, it is theorised that Ornitholestes would have had downy covering over much of its body.
- A nasal horn, which, though originally supported by fossil evidence, was found to only be part of the rostrum.
- Ornitholestes was shown to prey upon large animals such as humans; in real life, they would have stuck to small reptiles and mammals.