Cerapoda

Cerapoda

Life

Cerapods
Temporal range: Middle JurassicLate Cretaceous, 169–65.5 Ma
Skulls of cerapod dinosaurs
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Ornithischia
Branch: Neornithischia
Node: Cerapoda
Sereno, 1986
Subgroups

Cerapoda ("ceratopsians and ornithopods") is a clade of the dinosaur order Ornithischia.

Classification

Cerapoda is divided into two groups: Ornithopoda ("bird-foot") and Marginocephalia ("fringed heads"). The later group includes the Pachycephalosauria ("thick-headed lizards") and Ceratopsia ("horned faces"). The following taxonomy follows Richard J. Butler, Paul Upchurch and David B. Norman, 2008 (and Butler et al., 2011) unless otherwise noted.[1][2]

Cerapoda was first named by Sereno in 1986 and defined by him as "Parasaurolophus walkeri Parks, 1922, Triceratops horridus Marsh, 1889, their most recent common ancestor and all descendents".[1] The cladogram below follows a 2011 analysis by paleontologists Richard J. Butler, Jin Liyong, Chen Jun and Pascal Godefroit.[2]

Cerapoda

Ornithopoda Parasaurolophuspic steveoc.jpg


Marginocephalia

Pachycephalosauria Pachycephalosauria jmallon.jpg



Ceratopsia Triceratops BW.jpg




In addition, there are some species which are difficult to classify in either the marginocephalian or ornithopod lineages, such as Albalophosaurus yamaguchiorum, which is considered Cerapoda incertae sedis (uncertain placement).[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Richard J. Butler, Paul Upchurch and David B. Norman (2008). "The phylogeny of the ornithischian dinosaurs". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 6 (1): 1–40. doi:10.1017/S1477201907002271. 
  2. ^ a b Richard J. Butler, Jin Liyong, Chen Jun, Pascal Godefroit (2011). "The postcranial osteology and phylogenetic position of the small ornithischian dinosaur Changchunsaurus parvus from the Quantou Formation (Cretaceous: Aptian–Cenomanian) of Jilin Province, north-eastern China". Palaeontology 54 (3): 667–683. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2011.01046.x. 
  3. ^ Ohashi, T., and Barrett, P.M. (2009). "A new ornithischian dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Kuwajima Formation of Japan". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (Society of Vertebrate Paleontology) 29 (3): 748-7. doi:10.1671/039.029.0306. 
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