Ingenia is considered to be closely related to Oviraptor also found in Mongolia. Oviraptor was first found on top of the eggs which were originally thought to belong to Protoceratops. As a consequence, scientists interpreted the animal died while feeding on the eggs, however, recent findings showed that these eggs were, in fact, their own. Now Oviraptor is believed to have had brooding behavior as modern birds do.

Ingenia is distinguished from Oviraptor by the lack of a large crest on its skull. It had a smaller skull (10.5 cm in length), shorter fingers and lightly built body in comparison to Oviraptor.

Its toothless parrot-like beak might have been suited for crunching tough diets, however, what they ate remains obscure. It is likely to have been omnivorous.

This animal would have laid 12 pairs of eggs (i.e. 24 eggs in total) forming a three layer helix in each nest. Ingenia might have brooded as Oviraptor did.

In this specimen, you can see the furcula (wishbone; indicated by an arrow in the figure) which rarely found in other dinosaurs. Recently it is also found in Allosaurus, however, this structure is considered peculiar to avian anatomy. The furcula of this specimen is alike a boomerang in shape which resembles that of Archaeopteryx.

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