Ingenia

Say it: in-JEE-nee-uh

Name means: “from the Ingen Khoboor Depression in Mongolia”1

Ate: A bit of everythingOdd feathered dinosLate Cretaceous

Ingenia was a small, toothless dinosaur that looked a bit like a bird. It had a short, steep snout and very short arms with a huge thumb claw. It lived in what is now Mongolia near the end of the age of dinosaurs.1 3

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Hermin Tsav, southwestern Mongolia3 2

Food

A bit of everything3

Length

1.5 m1

estimate

Weight

20 kg1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 3 house cats nose to tailas long as 8 bananas end to endas heavy as 5 house catsas heavy as 4 watermelons

How big was Ingenia compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Ingenia had no teeth at all, just a beak like a parrot.2

Its first finger had a huge, curved claw, while the other two fingers were tiny and weak.2

Ingenia was originally named in 1981, but the name was already used for a tiny worm, so scientists later renamed it Heyuannia yanshini.1

Fossils of Ingenia were found in the Barun Goyot Formation, which was a dry, sandy desert 70 to 66 million years ago.1 3

Scientists think Ingenia laid blue-green eggs, based on pigments preserved in eggshells of its close relative Heyuannia.1

Ingenia was about 1.5 metres (5 feet) long and weighed around 20 kilograms (44 pounds), about the size of a large turkey.1

AI-made picture of Ingenia — An AI-made picture of how Ingenia 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.

Ask Rex about Ingenia

Rex only answers questions about this page. 3 questions a day.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

Myth buster

Myth: Ingenia is sometimes thought to be a separate dinosaur from Heyuannia.

Truth: Scientists now consider Ingenia yanshini to be a species of Heyuannia, called Heyuannia yanshini.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Ingenia
Named by: Barsbold 19813
Group: Odd feathered dinos
Family / clade: Oviraptoridae3
Classification: Theropoda > Oviraptorosauria3
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)3
Rock formations: Nemegt3
Countries: Mongolia3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Ingenia was named by Mongolian paleontologist Rinchen Barsbold in 1981, based on fossils found at Hermin Tsav in Mongolia. The species name yanshini honors his mentor, academician Aleksandr Yanshin.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly where Ingenia fits in the oviraptorid family tree, whether in the subfamily Oviraptorinae or Ingeniinae.1

Where the facts come from

Heyuannia (en.wikipedia.org)
Toothless Dinosaurs of Mongolia R. Barsbold Fossil Vertebrates of Mongolia Academy of Sciences of USSR Paleontological Institute Academy of Sciences of the MPR Geological Institute Nauka Moscow 1981 (naturalhistory.si.edu)
Ingenia in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex