Cerapoda ("ceratopsians" and "ornithopods") is a clade of the dinosaur clade Ornithischia, that includes pachycephalosaurs, ceratopsians and ornithopods
Cerapoda Temporal range: Middle Jurassic–Late Cretaceous,
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Skulls of cerapod dinosaurs | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | †Ornithischia |
Clade: | †Genasauria |
Clade: | †Neornithischia |
Clade: | †Cerapoda Sereno, 1986 |
Subgroups | |
Cerapoda is divided into two groups: Ornithopoda ("bird-foot") and Marginocephalia ("fringed heads"). The latter 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 descendants".[1] In 2021, Cerapoda was given a formal definition under the PhyloCode: "The smallest clade containing Iguanodon bernissartensis Boulenger in Beneden, 1881, Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis (Gilmore, 1931), and Triceratops horridus Marsh, 1889."[3]
The cladogram below follows a 2011 analysis by paleontologists Richard J. Butler, Jin Liyong, Chen Jun and Pascal Godefroit.[2]