MEANING: Smallest runner
PERIOD: Late Jurassic
CONTINENT: Asia
Minimocursor is a basal neornithischian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Thailand, where it is thought to have been abundant. It is the oldest and most completely known neornithischian from Southeast Asia. Like other small-bodied basal neornithischians, it ran on two legs and had a pointed beak. Though the known specimen is estimated to have only been about 60 cm in length, it is thought that adults could grow up to 2 m.
Minimocursor is from the Jurassic. The Jurassic is a geologic period that spanned from the end of the Triassic, 201 million y ears ago, to the beginning of the Cretaceous, 145 million years ago. It is the middle period of the Mesozoic Era. The start of the Jurassic was marked by the major Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. The end, however, has no clear boundary with the Cretaceous. By the beginning of the Jurassic, Pangea had begun rifting into two landmasses: Laurasia and Gondwana, and the climate was warm with no ice caps. Life on land was dominated by dinosaurs, and the first birds appeared, evolving from a branch of theropods. The oceans were inhabited by marine reptiles, while pterosaurs were the dominant flying vertebrates.
Minimocursor is an ornithischian. The name Ornithischia means "bird-hipped," and the group is characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. Ornithischia consists of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs and reflects this similarity, however, birds themselves to not fall into this group. Ornithischians with well known anatomical adaptations include the ceratopsians and their close relatives, the pachycephalosaurs, the armored dinosaurs (Thyreophora) such as stegosaurs and ankylosaurs, and the ornithopods - bipedal or quadrupedal herbivores including hadrosaurs.