Zephyrosaurus

Zephyrosaurus
Temporal range: Lower Cretaceous
Mounted Deinonychus and Zephyrosaurus skeletons with reconstructed parts, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Class:
Sauropsida
Superorder:
Dinosauria
Order:
Ornithischia
Suborder:
Cerapoda
Infraorder:
Ornithopoda
Family:
Hypsilophodontidae
Genus:
Zephyrosaurus
Binomial name
Zephyrosaurus schaffi
Sues, 1980

Zephyrosaurus was a small dinosaur. It was a relative of Hypsilophodon. It lived 132 million years ago, in the western part of what is now North America. It was 6 ft (2 metres) long and 3 ft (1 metre) high.

The remains are bones from various parts of the body. It had a steep face, a raised knob on the upper jaw, and a larger knob on the cheekbone. Some of the bones may have allowed movement within the skull (cranial kinesis) as well. Like other hypsilophodonts, it had beak teeth.

References

  1. ↑ Weishampel, David B. and Heinrich, Ronald E. 1992. Systematics of Hypsilophodontidae and Basal Iguanodontia (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda). Historical Biology 6 (3): 159–184.
  2. ↑ Norman, David B. et al 2004. Basal Ornithopoda. In Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds) The Dinosauria. 2nd ed, Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 393–412. ISBN 0-520-24209-2