Word: compsognathus
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Contrary to the public image of dinosaurs as the Edsels of evolution, says Colbert, they were extraordinarily well-adapted creatures. They inhabited every corner of the world and ranged in bulk from the chicken-size Compsognathus to the 100-ton Brachiosaurus, the largest creature ever to trod the earth. Though they plodded through swamps and shallow coastal waters, they were essentially land bound. Some ambled on all fours; others scampered after prey on their lower limbs. Some may have lived a century or more...
...midget has been identified as a Compsognathus corallestris, which, loosely translated from the Greek, means "long-jawed coral dweller." A shade over 15 in. high and only 49 in. long, the tiny reptile had a skeleton similar in construction to those of monster dinosaurs like the Brachiosaurus, largest land animal ever to roam the earth. But corallestris hardly seems like a dinosaur at all. Whereas other dinosaurs lived on dry land or in swamps, corallestris made its home on offshore atolls. Like a heron or cormorant, the hollow-boned creature probably made use of its long supple neck in catching...
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