Ornithischia is an extinct clade of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. The name Ornithischia, or "bird-hipped", reflects this similarity and is derived from the Greek stem ornith- (ὀρνιθ-), meaning "bird", and ischion (ἴσχιον), meaning "hip". However, birds are only distantly related to this group as birds are theropod dinosaurs. Ornithischians with well known anatomical adaptations include the ceratopsians or "horn-faced" dinosaurs, the pachycephalosaurs or "thick-headed" dinosaurs, the armored dinosaurs (Thyreophora) such as stegosaurs and ankylosaurs, and the ornithopods. There is strong evidence that certain groups of ornithischians lived in herds, often segregated by age group, with juveniles forming their own flocks separate from adults. Some were at least partially covered in filamentous pelts, and there is much debate over whether these filaments found in specimens of Tianyulong, Psittacosaurus, and Kulindadromeus may have been primitive feathers.
Thyreophora is a group of armored ornithischian dinosaurs that lived from the Early Jurassic until the end of the Cretaceous.
Lesothosaurus is a monospecific genus of ornithischian dinosaur that lived during the Early Jurassic in what is now South Africa and Lesotho. It was named by paleontologist Peter Galton in 1978, the name meaning "lizard from Lesotho". The genus has only one valid species, Lesothosaurus diagnosticus. Lesothosaurus is one of the most completely-known early ornithischians, based on numerous skull and postcranial fossils from the Upper Elliot Formation. It had a simpler tooth and jaw anatomy than later ornithischians, and may have been omnivorous in some parts of the year.
Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the clade Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. They are known to have first appeared in the Middle Jurassic, and persisted until the end of the Cretaceous Period. The two main families of Ankylosaurs, Nodosauridae and Ankylosauridae are primarily known from the Northern Hemisphere, but the more basal Parankylosauria are known from southern Gondwana during the Cretaceous.
Dinosaur classification began in 1842 when Sir Richard Owen placed Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, and Hylaeosaurus in "a distinct tribe or suborder of Saurian Reptiles, for which I would propose the name of Dinosauria." In 1887 and 1888 Harry Seeley divided dinosaurs into the two orders Saurischia and Ornithischia, based on their hip structure. These divisions have proved remarkably enduring, even through several seismic changes in the taxonomy of dinosaurs.
Leaellynasaura is a genus of small herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs from the Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous, first discovered in Dinosaur Cove, Australia. The only known species is Leaellynasaura amicagraphica. It was described in 1989, and named after Leaellyn Rich, the daughter of the Australian palaeontologist couple Tom Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich who discovered it. The specific name, amicagraphica, translates to "friend writing" and honours both the Friends of the Museum of Victoria and the National Geographic Society for their support of Australian paleontology.
Hypsilophodontidae is a traditionally used family of ornithopod dinosaurs, generally considered invalid today. It historically included many small bodied bipedal neornithischian taxa from around the world, and spanning from the Middle Jurassic until the Late Cretaceous. This inclusive status was supported by some phylogenetic analyses from the 1990s and mid 2000s, although there have also been many finding that the family is an unnatural grouping which should only include the type genus, Hypsilophodon, with the other genera being within clades like Thescelosauridae and Elasmaria. A 2014 analysis by Norman recovered a grouping of Hypsilophodon, Rhabdodontidae and Tenontosaurus, which he referred to as Hypsilophodontia. All other analyses from around the same time have instead found these latter taxa to be within Iguanodontia.
Alocodon is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur known from multiple teeth from the Middle or Late Jurassic Cabaços Formation of Portugal, and also the Forest Marble and Chipping Norton Formations of England. A single species is known, A. kuehnei.
Huayangosauridae is a family of stegosaurian dinosaurs from the Jurassic of China. The group is defined as all taxa closer to the namesake genus Huayangosaurus than Stegosaurus, and was originally named as the family Huayangosaurinae by Dong Zhiming and colleagues in the description of Huayangosaurus. Huayangosaurinae was originally differentiated by the remaining taxa within Stegosauridae by the presence of teeth in the premaxilla, an antorbital fenestra, and a mandibular fenestra. Huayangosaurinae, known from the Middle Jurassic of the Shaximiao Formation, was proposed to be intermediate between Scelidosaurinae and Stegosaurinae, suggesting that the origins of stegosaurs lay in Asia. Following phylogenetic analyses, Huayangosauridae was expanded to also include the taxon Chungkingosaurus, known from specimens from younger Late Jurassic deposits of the Shaximiao Formation. Huayangosauridae is either the sister taxon to all other stegosaurs, or close to the origin of the clade, with taxa like Gigantspinosaurus or Isaberrysaura outside the Stegosauridae-Huayangosauridae split. Huayangosauridae was formally defined in 2021 by Daniel Madzia and colleagues, who used the previous definitions of all taxa closer to Huayangosaurus taibaii than Stegosaurus stenops, and chose the 2020 phylogeny of Susannah Maidment et al. to illustrate the relationships of the clade:
Heterodontosauridae is a family of ornithischian dinosaurs that were likely among the most basal (primitive) members of the group. Their phylogenetic placement is uncertain but they are most commonly found to be primitive, outside of the group Genasauria. Although their fossils are relatively rare and their group small in numbers, they have been found on all continents except Australia and Antarctica, with a range spanning the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous.
Eocursor is genus of basal ornithischian dinosaur that lived in what is now South Africa during the Early Jurassic. Remains of this animal have been found in the Upper Elliot Formation and it is among the most completely known early ornithischians, shedding new light on the origin of the group.
Genasauria is a clade of extinct beaked, primarily herbivorous dinosaurs. Paleontologist Paul Sereno first named Genasauria in 1986. The name Genasauria is derived from the Latin word gena meaning ‘cheek’ and the Greek word saúra (σαύρα) meaning ‘lizard.’ It is hypothesized that Genasauria had diverged from Lesothosaurus by the Early Jurassic. Cranial features that characterize Genasauria include a medial offset of the maxillary dentition, a sprout-shaped mandibular symphysis, moderately sized coronoid process, and an edentulous anterior portion of the premaxilla. A distinguishing postcranial feature of Genasauria is a pubic peduncle of the ilium that is less robust than the ischial peduncle. Genasauria is commonly divided into Neornithischia and Thyreophora. Neornithischia is characterized by asymmetrical distributions of enamel covering the crowns of the cheek teeth, an open acetabulum, and a laterally protruding ischial peduncle of the ilium. Neornithischia includes ornithopods, pachycephalosaurs, and ceratopsians. Thyreophora is characterized by body armor and includes stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, Scelidosaurus, and Scutellosaurus.
Thescelosauridae is a clade of neornithischians from the Cretaceous of Asia, North America and possibly South America. The group was originally used as a name by Charles M. Sternberg in 1937, but was not formally defined until 2013, where it was used by Brown and colleagues as the group uniting Thescelosaurus and Orodromeus, based on their phylogenetic results. During a phylogenetic revision of neornithischians by Clint Boyd in 2015, the authorship of Thescelosauridae was given to Brown and colleagues, which meant that the similar name Parksosauridae, informally defined in 2002 by Buchholz, would have had priority over Thescelosauridae. The two clades had slightly different definitions, with Parksosauridae referring to all animals closer to Parksosaurus than Hypsilophodon, but they contained the same taxa so Boyd used Parksosauridae under the assumption it had priority. However, in formalizing the clade following the regulations of the PhyloCode, Madzia, Boyd, and colleagues identified in 2021 that Sternberg was the proper authority for Thescelosauridae, giving it priority over Parksosauridae. As well, they gave Thescelosauridae the definition of the largest clade containing Thescelosaurus neglectus but not Iguanodon bernissartensis, as long as Hypsilophodon foxii was not in the group, modifying previous definitions for Thescelosauridae in order to maintain its modern use, so that the clade was not applied if Thescelosaurus fell within Hypsilophodontidae, a family that has not been recently used but may be revived if the systematic position of Hypsilophodon was solidified at some point in the future. Madzia et al. identified the analysis of Madzia et al. in 2018 as the reference analysis for the name Thescelosauridae, an analysis based on a revised version of the 2015 Boyd analysis.
Ornithoscelida is a proposed clade that includes various major groupings of dinosaurs. An order Ornithoscelida was originally proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley but later abandoned in favor of Harry Govier Seeley's division of Dinosauria into Saurischia and Ornithischia. The term was revived in 2017 after a new cladistic analysis by Baron et al.
Haya is an extinct genus of basal neornithischian dinosaur known from Mongolia.
Cerapoda is a clade of the dinosaur clade Ornithischia, that includes pachycephalosaurs, ceratopsians and ornithopods
Elasmaria is a clade of ornithopods known from Cretaceous deposits in South America, Antarctica, and Australia that contains many bipedal ornithopods that were previously considered "hypsilophodonts".
Jeholosauridae was a group of herbivorous neornithischian dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period. The family was first proposed by Han et al. in 2012. The jeholosaurids were defined as all neornithischians more closely related to Jeholosaurus shangyuanensis than to Hypsilophodon foxii, Iguanodon bernissartensis, Protoceratops andrewsi, Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis, or Thescelosaurus neglectus. The Jeholosauridae includes the type genus Jeholosaurus, and also possibly Yueosaurus, Changchunsaurus, and Haya.
Laquintasaura is a genus of Venezuelan ornithischian dinosaur containing only the type species Laquintasaura venezuelae. The species was the first dinosaur to have been identified from Venezuela. It is known from extensive remains, all from a singular bonebed locality which has been sampled for specimen blocks over the course of several expeditions, largely led by Marcelo R Sánchez-Villagra. A small, very primitive animal, it is known for its distinct dental anatomy and for being one of the earliest and most primitive ornithischians in the fossil record. Taxonomic uncertainty has led to conflicting theories that it is either as the base of Ornithischia or at the base of the subgroup Thyreophora. In either model, its dating to around 200 million years ago, at the start of the Jurassic, existence in equatorial latitudes, and primitive nature make it a key view into early ornithischian evolution. It's thought that Laquintasaura would've lived in groups and had a possible omnivorous diet, living on a seasonal alluvial plain and being preyed about by the contemporary Tachiraptor.
