Back عداء الفجر (زاحف) Arabic Eocursor parvus Catalan Eocursor Czech Eocursor German Eocursor parvus Spanish نخستدونده Persian Eocursor French Eocursor parvus Italian Eocursor Dutch Eokursor Polish
| Eocursor Temporal range: Early Jurassic,
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| Restoration | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Genus: | †Eocursor Butler, Smith & Norman, 2007 |
| Species: | †E. parvus
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| Binomial name | |
| †Eocursor parvus Butler, Smith & Norman, 2007
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Eocursor (meaning "dawn runner") is genus of basal ornithischian dinosaur that lived in what is now South Africa during the Early Jurassic. Remains of this animal have been found in the Upper Elliot Formation and it is among the most completely known early ornithischians, shedding new light on the origin of the group.[1]
The exact age of this taxon has been the subject of uncertainty. It was originally interprereted as living during the Late Triassic (Norian age), around 210 million years ago;[1] however, Olsen, Kent & Whiteside (2010) stated that there is no independent geochronological support for its assumed age, and the available data makes it impossible to conclusively determine whether Eocursor is of Triassic or Early Jurassic (potentially as young as Sinemurian) age.[2] Eocursor was subsequently interpreted as a taxon of Early Jurassic age by McPhee et al. (2017), who identified the specimen as having originated from the Upper (not Lower) Elliot Formation.[3]
Fossils of Eocursor were originally collected in 1993, but were not formally described until fourteen years later. The type species, Eocursor parvus, was described in 2007 by Richard J. Butler, Roger M. H. Smith, and David B. Norman. Eocursor was one of the earliest known ornithischians, and sheds some light on early dinosaur relationships because early dinosaurs are known from mostly incomplete skeletons. Eocursor is known from partial skeletal elements, including skull fragments, spinal elements, pelvis, long leg bones, and unusually large grasping hands.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.