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clade · 50 represented species

Ornithischia

Ornithischia is a diverse lineage of predominantly herbivorous dinosaurs that includes armoured, horned and duck-billed forms.

Explore this branch Parent: Dinosauria

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Ornithischia

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Representative silhouette for Ornithischia
3Direct child groups
15Countries represented
200–66 MaDataset range

Definition

Characteristics and significance

Ornithischians repeatedly evolved elaborate armour, cranial display structures and increasingly specialized plant-processing systems.

  • Predentary bone supporting a beak
  • Backward-directed pubis in the typical pelvic arrangement
  • Cheek teeth adapted for processing plants

Name meaning: Bird-hipped

Branch structure

Direct branches in this dataset

Representative taxa

Dinosaurs in this branch

Jurassic

Stegosaurus stenops

The best-known plated dinosaur: a low-browsing Morrison Formation herbivore with two rows of tall back plates and four formidable tail spikes. Its exceptionally complete holotype preserves rare details including a skull and throat ossicles.

herbivore~6.8 m

Jurassic

Kentrosaurus aethiopicus

A compact Tanzanian stegosaur with plates over the front half of its back and increasingly long defensive spikes toward the hips and tail.

herbivore~4.5 m

Jurassic

Tuojiangosaurus multispinus

A well-represented Chinese stegosaur with a long low skull, changing plate shapes along its back and formidable spikes toward the end of the tail.

herbivore~7 m

Jurassic

Miragaia longicollum

A Portuguese stegosaur with at least seventeen neck vertebrae—more than most sauropods and far more than its short-necked relatives.

herbivore~6.5 m

Jurassic

Dacentrurus armatus

A heavily built European stegosaur with a long neck, broad back plates and formidable tail spikes, known from a historic English skeleton and newer Iberian fossils.

herbivore~6 m

Cretaceous

Ankylosaurus magniventris

A huge, broad-bodied ankylosaurid from the final two million years of the Cretaceous, protected by bony armour and armed with a stiff-handled tail club. Despite its fame, no complete skeleton is known.

herbivore~7.5 m

Distribution

Geographic record

United States · Tanzania · China · Portugal · United Kingdom · France · Spain · Canada · South Africa · South Korea · Belgium · Russia · Niger · Australia · Mongolia

Country-level summary of represented seed records, not a complete range map.

Sources

Further reading