--- title: 'Romeo and Juliet' Dinosaurs Found Buried Together description: The couple was unearthed after 75 million years canonical: https://time.com/3770370/romeo-juliet-dinosaurs/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-03T11:35:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T05:40:58.412Z article:section: Science og:title: 'Romeo and Juliet' Dinosaurs Found Buried Together og:description: The couple was unearthed after 75 million years og:url: https://time.com/3770370/romeo-juliet-dinosaurs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt876850c7648f6408/6987869006f2c11e51334be0/dinosaur-gobi-desert-oviraptorosaur.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 476871173 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Romeo and Juliet' Dinosaurs Found Buried Together twitter:description: The couple was unearthed after 75 million years twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt876850c7648f6408/6987869006f2c11e51334be0/dinosaur-gobi-desert-oviraptorosaur.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Romeo and Juliet' Dinosaurs Found Buried Together ## Video: Waking the Dead: Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life [Watch (HLS stream): Waking the Dead: Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7mURxfr4.m3u8) (4:03)  _Published 2014-03-12. Conservationists and scientists have a saying, "extinction is forever." But soon biologists will clone long-gone animals in the hope to redefine that axiom to "DE-extinction is forever."_ by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Apr 3, 2015 11:35 AM UTC  A pair of omnivorous Caudipteryx, a member of the oviraptorosaur family, feathered dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous period. A pair of omnivorous Caudipteryx, a member of the oviraptorosaur family, feathered dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous period.Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Apr 3, 2015 11:35 AM UTC Researchers [uncovered](http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150328/srep09472/full/srep09472.html) a dinosaur couple that had been buried together for more than 75 million years and gave them the nicknames “Romeo and Juliet.” The dinosaurs, a pair of oviraptors, were found to have physical differences suggesting they were male and female, similar to the gender differences seen in modern birds, the researchers wrote in the journal _Scientific Reports_. They were discovered within about 20 centimeters of each other in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia. It’s likely that the love birds were killed in a sand dune collapse brought on by heavy rains, and therefore buried alive—suggesting a more apt pair of nicknames might be [Aida and Radamès](https://metopera.org/metopera/season/synopsis/aida?customid=814). \[[_Scientific Reports_](http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150328/srep09472/full/srep09472.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3770370/romeo-juliet-dinosaurs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3770370/romeo-juliet-dinosaurs/"},"headline":"'Romeo and Juliet' Dinosaurs Found Buried Together","datePublished":"2015-04-03T11:35:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T05:40:58.412Z","description":"The couple was unearthed after 75 million years","url":"https://time.com/3770370/romeo-juliet-dinosaurs/","keywords":["Archaeology"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt876850c7648f6408/6987869006f2c11e51334be0/dinosaur-gobi-desert-oviraptorosaur.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt876850c7648f6408/6987869006f2c11e51334be0/dinosaur-gobi-desert-oviraptorosaur.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"476871173","caption":"476871173","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/archaeology/","name":"Archaeology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3770370/romeo-juliet-dinosaurs/","name":"'Romeo and Juliet' Dinosaurs Found Buried Together"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Waking the Dead: Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life","description":"Conservationists and scientists have a saying, \"extinction is forever.\" But soon biologists will clone long-gone animals in the hope to redefine that axiom to \"DE-extinction is forever.\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7mURxfr4/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-03-12T14:27:23.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7mURxfr4.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3770370/romeo-juliet-dinosaurs/","duration":"PT4M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3770370/romeo-juliet-dinosaurs/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```