Compsognathus, the "Elegant Jaw,"
may be an adorably small creature,
but it is truely an opportunistic
carnivore with a bad attitude. With
a length of a meter and height of
half a meter, some members of the
species managed to grow to the size
of turkies, but not much larger.
Commonly called a "compy," several
fossil finds of this creature are
nearly complete and very well
preserved; due to the remarkable 
integrity of the remains, even the
contents of some Compsognathus'
bellies have been fossilized. This
gives paleontologists a clear idea 
of its diet, which is not very 
common amongst dinosaurs due to the 
precarious nature of the fossil 
record.

During the Late Jurassic, the 
Compsognathus lived in the tropical
achipelago that is now Europe. 
Fossil evidence (or lack thereof) 
hints that Compsognathus may have 
been the only terrestrial dinosaur
on the European archipelago, living 
with small flying creatures like 
Archaeopteryx and Rhamphorhynchus, 
which occupied very different niches
from its own, leaving it to be the 
top land predator in the region. It
preyed on small vertebrates such as
lizards, which were found fossilized 
in its belly. Its small frame and
and long tail and limbs permitted 
swift movement, which allowed it to 
outrun and outmaneuver other small 
creatures that would be its prey.
