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WWD: Ornitholestes hermanni
🕑 Added 2023-04-20 02:04:49 +0000 UTCOkay, here we go, the first coelurosaur. This is the point where the major redesigns start getting real mandatory. Ornitholestes is one of several small coelurosaurian carnivores known from the Morrison Formation; it was less than seven feet long (more than half of its length was made of a long, thin tail) and only about thirty pounds, making it the smallest dinosaur in the episode.
So one of the most notable aspects of its portrayal in WWD is that it possess a rounded nose horn. Notably, this is actually a rather recent idea, it was first proposed by Gregory Paul in his influential 1988 text, Predatory Dinosaurs of the World (probably better known for being the reason why the Jurassic Park dromaeosaurs are called Velociraptor instead of Deinonychus). He noticed how the nasal bone in the only known Ornitholestes fossil bulged slightly upwards, surmised that it was the beginnings of a nasal crest, and illustrated it having such in the book. This idea was short-lived, as subsequent studies in the early 00s indicated the much greater likelihood the bone was just displaced by post-mortem damage during fossilization, and he's since abandoned the idea.
The WWD design takes heavy inspiration from this depiction, even including the feathery crest it has, although in the book it was covered in a shaggy feathered coat from head to tail, an idea way ahead of its time. They probably weren't ambitious enough to include fully feathered dinosaurs in WWD since it would've really strained their budget, and smooth scaly skin is a lot easier to animate than feathers, especially considering this was 90s-era TV CGI. You can notice this in the close-ups, because the quills clip in and out of the skin a lot.
So the obvious other thing that probably changed the most between WWD and now; we now know that many dinosaurs were covered in feathers. How many is still up for debate, but most agree that the common ancestor of all coelurosaurs at least had it. Just a few quills is nowhere near enough anymore, now it has a full shaggy coat and wings. The nose horn also got turned into a little fleshy dewlap. Many modern restorations, including this one, give it a dromaeosaur-like sickle claw, due to its potentially close relationship with maniraptorans and possible beginnings of an enlarged claw on its second toe.
