Ornithopod

Various ornithopod

• Worldwide

The ornithopods ( Romanization of ancient Greek ὄρνις ornis, Bird ' and πούς pous, foot '; literally so " Vogelfüßer ", " Vogelfußdinosaurier " ) were bipedal, secondarily quadrupede again, not armored, plant-eating dinosaur from the group of bird Beck dinosaurs ( Ornithischia ). Ornithopods to include the well-known families of Iguanodontidae and Hadrosauridae. In addition to the Ceratopsia the ornithopods were the only suborder of dinosaurs that could chew their food and thus not only used gastroliths (stomach stones ) for the comminution of food. They were spread throughout the world and appear from the Early Jurassic in the fossil record.

Inside systematics

The ornithopods share in the small Heterodontosauridae and Euornithopoda, both taxa are considered to be monophyletic. The Euornithopoda were divided into the Hypsilophodontidae and Iguanodontia. The Hypsilophodontidae are now considered paraphyletic. The known hadrosaur are a subset of Iguanodontia.