Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Eocursor
open-in-new
<h2 id="description">Description</h2> <p><i>Eocursor</i> was a lightly built bipedal dinosaur with an estimated length of about 1 m (3 ft). The general aspect of the animal resembles that of the early Jurassic ornithischians such as <i><a href="/facts/Lesothosaurus/yN6dlzXI">Lesothosaurus</a></i> and <i><a href="/facts/Scutellosaurus/PrwFeSkW">Scutellosaurus</a></i>. Its large hands resembled those of the <a href="/facts/Heterodontosauridae/URBX2qms">Heterodontosauridae</a>, a <a href="/facts/Clade/XefyYmWn">clade</a> of primitive ornithischians. The morphology of the triangular teeth, not unlike those of an <a href="/facts/Iguana/k88C7GhM">iguana</a>, suggests partial herbivory. The <a href="/facts/Tibia/YXQ0F48L">tibia</a> was significantly longer than the <a href="/facts/Femur/uVyTwj4l">femur</a>, indicating it was a swift runner.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="discovery-and-naming">Discovery and naming</h2> <p>In 1993, the <a href="/facts/Holotype/a8n9vhHa">holotype</a> specimen of <i>Eocursor</i> (<a href="/facts/Iziko_SA_Museum/3CURb43m">SAM</a>-PK-K8025) was collected from the Upper Elliot Formation in <a href="/facts/Free_State_(South_African_province)/vnKmcuBA">Free State</a>, South Africa. The skeleton, although only partially complete, is one of the best-preserved early ornithischian skeletons ever found. The fossils include a partial skeleton: portions of the skull, lower jaw, vertebrae, and limbs.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> </p><p>In June 2007, the fossils were formally described by an international team of <a href="/facts/Paleontology/60n5yldd">paleontologists</a>: Richard Butler of the <a href="/facts/Natural_History_Museum,_London/SWrrNn0K">Natural History Museum</a>, London, and the <a href="/facts/University_of_Cambridge/0la7aX9o">University of Cambridge</a>, David Norman of the <a href="/facts/University_of_Cambridge/0la7aX9o">University of Cambridge</a>, and Roger M. H. Smith of the Iziko South African Museum. The fossils were named <i>Eocursor parvus</i>, from the <a href="/facts/Ancient_Greek/LIK7NlUh">Greek</a> word <i>eos</i> (meaning "dawn"), and the <a href="/facts/Latin/pM3Kge85">Latin</a> words <i>cursor</i> (meaning "runner") and <i>parvus</i> ("little"), "in reference to the early occurrence of this ornithischian, its apparent locomotory abilities and its small size."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="classification">Classification</h2> <p><i>Eocursor</i> was an early ornithischian, one of the first so-called "bird-hipped" dinosaurs, a group which would eventually give rise to animals such as <i><a href="/facts/Stegosaurus/TBRwShrM">Stegosaurus</a></i>, <i><a href="/facts/Triceratops/TQCHrWwS">Triceratops</a></i>, and <i><a href="/facts/Iguanodon/f4WBtpbX">Iguanodon</a></i>. Butler <i>et al.</i> consider <i>Eocursor</i> more primitive than <i>Lesothosaurus</i> and Heterodontosauridae, but more derived than the <i><a href="/facts/Pisanosaurus/P8znNmqB">Pisanosaurus</a></i>, as a basal ornithischian forming a sister <a href="/facts/Clade/XefyYmWn">clade</a> of <a href="/facts/Genasauria/3FxuFIjp">Genasauria</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6744955.stm"><i>Eocursor parvus</i> BBC article</a></li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071231093726/http://www.skeletaldrawing.com/eocursor_page.html"><i>Eocursor parvus</i> skeletal reconstruction by Scott Hartman</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Butler, Richard J.; Smith, Roger M. H.; Norman, David B. (22 August 2007). "A primitive ornithischian dinosaur from the Late Triassic of South Africa, and the early evolution and diversification of Ornithischia". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 274 (1621): 2041–6. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.0367. PMC 2275175. PMID 17567562. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275175" target="_blank">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275175</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Butler, Richard J.; Smith, Roger M. H.; Norman, David B. (22 August 2007). "A primitive ornithischian dinosaur from the Late Triassic of South Africa, and the early evolution and diversification of Ornithischia". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 274 (1621): 2041–6. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.0367. PMC 2275175. PMID 17567562. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275175" target="_blank">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275175</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Olsen, Paul E.; Kent, Dennis V.; Whiteside, Jessica H. (2010). "Implications of the Newark Supergroup-based astrochronology and geomagnetic polarity time scale (Newark-APTS) for the tempo and mode of the early diversification of the Dinosauria". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 101 (3–4): 201–229. Bibcode:2010EESTR.101..201O. doi:10.1017/S1755691011020032. S2CID 16123732. <a href="/wiki/Bibcode_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/Bibcode_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Mcphee, Blair W.; Bordy, Emese M.; Sciscio, Lara; Choiniere, Jonah N. (2017). "The sauropodomorph biostratigraphy of the Elliot Formation of southern Africa: Tracking the evolution of Sauropodomorpha across the Triassic–Jurassic boundary". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 62 (3): 441–465. doi:10.4202/app.00377.2017. <a href="https://doi.org/10.4202%2Fapp.00377.2017" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.4202%2Fapp.00377.2017</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Butler, Richard J.; Smith, Roger M. H.; Norman, David B. (22 August 2007). "A primitive ornithischian dinosaur from the Late Triassic of South Africa, and the early evolution and diversification of Ornithischia". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 274 (1621): 2041–6. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.0367. PMC 2275175. PMID 17567562. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275175" target="_blank">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275175</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Butler, Richard J.; Smith, Roger M. H.; Norman, David B. (22 August 2007). "A primitive ornithischian dinosaur from the Late Triassic of South Africa, and the early evolution and diversification of Ornithischia". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 274 (1621): 2041–6. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.0367. PMC 2275175. PMID 17567562. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275175" target="_blank">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275175</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Mcphee, Blair W.; Bordy, Emese M.; Sciscio, Lara; Choiniere, Jonah N. (2017). "The sauropodomorph biostratigraphy of the Elliot Formation of southern Africa: Tracking the evolution of Sauropodomorpha across the Triassic–Jurassic boundary". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 62 (3): 441–465. doi:10.4202/app.00377.2017. <a href="https://doi.org/10.4202%2Fapp.00377.2017" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.4202%2Fapp.00377.2017</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Butler, Richard J.; Smith, Roger M. H.; Norman, David B. (22 August 2007). "A primitive ornithischian dinosaur from the Late Triassic of South Africa, and the early evolution and diversification of Ornithischia". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 274 (1621): 2041–6. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.0367. PMC 2275175. PMID 17567562. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275175" target="_blank">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275175</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>Butler, Richard J.; Smith, Roger M. H.; Norman, David B. (22 August 2007). "A primitive ornithischian dinosaur from the Late Triassic of South Africa, and the early evolution and diversification of Ornithischia". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 274 (1621): 2041–6. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.0367. PMC 2275175. PMID 17567562. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275175" target="_blank">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2275175</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>