Compsognathus Facts for Kids
komp-SOG-nuh-thus · its name means “pretty jaw”
A small, quick dinosaur that ran after lizards on two thin legs.
- 📏 3.3 ft1 m1 long
- ⚖️ 5.5 lb2.5 kg1
- 🕰️ 145 to 201 million years ago145 to 201 million years ago2
- 🍽️ meat
Compsognathus was a small dinosaur. It ran fast on two thin legs. It ate lizards and other small animals.
Compsognathus was about as big as a turkey, one of the smallest dinosaurs known. It had a small head with pointed teeth, a long tail for balance and light bones. One fossil has a small lizard inside, right where its stomach was, so scientists know what it ate.
Compsognathus lived on the warm islands of Europe long ago. Its name means pretty jaw. Its bones were found in the same fine limestone near Solnhofen as Archaeopteryx. The scientist Thomas Huxley noticed how much its bones looked like a bird's, and that helped people start to think that birds came from dinosaurs.
Every dinosaur number is scientists’ best guess from bones, so each one says where it came from.
How big was Compsognathus?
Compsognathus in numbers
| Length (nose to tail) | 3.3 ft1 m1estimate |
|---|---|
| Height at the hips | no checked number yet |
| Weight | 5.5 lb2.5 kg1estimate |
| When it lived | 145 to 201 million years ago145 to 201 million years ago2the whole Jurassic Period |
| What it ate | small lizards and other small animals |
| Fossils found in | southern Germany, in the fine limestone near Solnhofen, and southern France |
| What kind | a theropod: a two-legged dinosaur, the group birds came from |
Wow!
- It was one of the smallest dinosaurs known.
- One fossil has a small lizard inside, where its stomach was.
- It lived in the same place as Archaeopteryx.
🦴 Compsognathus’s bones
Books about Compsognathus, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about Compsognathus for free.
Where was the land back then?
The continents were in different places when Compsognathus lived, 145 to 201 million years ago. Open Planet Earth, pick Drifting continents, and slide back in time to see where the land was.
Its neighbours in time
Where these numbers come from
- US Geological Survey, Dinosaurs: Facts and Fiction, checked 30 October 2026.
- National Park Service, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Compsognathus (Q130880), checked 30 October 2026.
To read more: the Natural History Museum’s Dino Directory (see also, not copied).