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Description

Decided to deviate from the usual line in paleoart and draw the ornithischian. The difference, however, is quite insignificant. In any case, this is Eocursor parvus from South Africa, an early representative of the ornithischian clade. He's described by the partial skeleton, which, however, has shed light on the unusual features of this animal. The dating of the specimen is controversial: the Norian stage of the late Triassic was first proposed, but Olsen, Kent & Whiteside (2010) questioned this, pointing out that there was not enough data to accurately determine age. Eocursor can originate from the late Triassic or from the early Jurassic. In 2017, McPhee et al. took dinosaur in the early Jurassic.

Being an early ornithischian, Eocursor apparently still remained omnivorous. Although the teeth are similar to the teeth of iguanas, grasping hands suggesting facultative eating of small animals. The hind limbs are well preserved. They are really very long, I was even a bit surprised. The animal must have been able to leave behind the modern predators, and the name, meaning "early runner" suits him very well.

As always, I want to explain my choice of Integument. Since phylogenetically heterodontosaurids, for which the presence of filamentous structures is proven, are rather primitive ornithischians (at least in most analyses), and fully scaly covers are described for animals more derived than Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus, I decided to reconstruct this Eocursor with insulating covers. However, part of tail has remained scaly. I would expect many options of integument in small ornithishians, that I will try to portray in some future works.

EDIT: Scanned version.

Technical pencil HB, 2019.

Description

Decided to deviate from the usual line in paleoart and draw the ornithischian. The difference, however, is quite insignificant. In any case, this is Eocursor parvus from South Africa, an early representative of the ornithischian clade. He's described by the partial skeleton, which, however, has shed light on the unusual features of this animal. The dating of the specimen is controversial: the Norian stage of the late Triassic was first proposed, but Olsen, Kent & Whiteside (2010) questioned this, pointing out that there was not enough data to accurately determine age. Eocursor can originate from the late Triassic or from the early Jurassic. In 2017, McPhee et al. took dinosaur in the early Jurassic.

Being an early ornithischian, Eocursor apparently still remained omnivorous. Although the teeth are similar to the teeth of iguanas, grasping hands suggesting facultative eating of small animals. The hind limbs are well preserved. They are really very long, I was even a bit surprised. The animal must have been able to leave behind the modern predators, and the name, meaning "early runner" suits him very well.

As always, I want to explain my choice of Integument. Since phylogenetically heterodontosaurids, for which the presence of filamentous structures is proven, are rather primitive ornithischians (at least in most analyses), and fully scaly covers are described for animals more derived than Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus, I decided to reconstruct this Eocursor with insulating covers. However, part of tail has remained scaly. I would expect many options of integument in small ornithishians, that I will try to portray in some future works.

EDIT: Scanned version.

Technical pencil HB, 2019.