Dinosaur Mural

Birdhouse at Riverbanks: Extinct bird mural. March 12, 2019. This is the first time I've ever seen a bird house talk about how therapod dinosaurs descended into the birds.

That is actually quite an impressive mural in terms of detail and attempted realism.

@KevinB Agreed. Combined with all the signage (that continues to the left) on the bottom this is really a great display for a bird house. There's a key that identifies all the species in the mural to the left as well.

~Thylo

Did they say the age/epoch or location that they were intending to depict here? Also any dinosaurian taxonomic names listed here?

@UngulateNerd92 I believe so to all of the above but unfortunately I do not remember the information and did not write it down.

~Thylo

@UngulateNerd92 I've never been but based on what I see here, I believe it is simply a collage made up of various dinosaurs (avain and non-avain) from different locations and times. They appear to be outdated reconstructions of Deinonychus (back left), Hesperornis (swimming in front of Deinonychus), Oviraptor (in nest), Compsognathus (small little guy next to nest), Coelphysis (right), Ichthyornis (top right, may actually still be considered accurate), Archaeopteryx (flying in middle), and Cratonavis (flying in middle on top).

@Hipporex ah thank you! At first glance it did look like a stratigraphic hodgepodge to me as well... thank you for the identifications!

The oviraptorid is definitely the least accurate from what I can see, with it's overly long tail and hands in an inaccurate posture in addition to being a featherless beast. I don't know whether it's meant to be Oviraptor specifically or not, although the full extent of any cranial ornamentation on Oviraptor philoceratops is unknown given the incomplete nature of the holotype's skull. I will say that it is nice at least to show the oviraptorid as a parent guarding its nest rather than as an egg thief (although oviraptorids certainly may well have eaten eggs of other dinosaurs and reptiles in certain instances), and it's also nice seeing that they didn't go for one of those old, "spiked" nasal appearances based on the incomplete holotype skull.

That said, I actually kind of enjoy seeing scenes like this. It's like the "Dinobot Island" episodes of The Transformers with a hodgepodge of different prehistoric beasts from different periods and places, most depicted inaccurately, but it has a certain charm to it, and I'm glad a zoo is attempting to make a connection between birds and theropods to begin with.

@Anniella Honestly I just guessed genus Oviraptor as it is obviously an Oviraptorid and it, along with perhaps genus Citipati, is perhaps the most commonly reconstructed member of that family.

@Hipporex I kind of feel like illustrations of Oviraptor and Citipati are often done interchangeably, although this was often more true in the years soon after the "Big Mama" discovery and announcement in the 1990s. Now I don't see it nearly as often as back then, although I'm sure it pops up every now and then.

That said, Citipati is my favorite dinosaur name, both for how it sounds and for what it is named after.