Old Earth Ministries Online Dinosaur Curriculum

Free online curriculum for homeschools and private schools

From Old Earth Ministries (We Believe in an Old Earth...and God!)

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Lesson 52 - Neornithischia Overview

Neornithischia ("new ornithischians") is a clade of the order Ornithischia. They are the sister group of the Thyreophora within the clade Genasauria. Neornithischians are united by having a thicker layer of asymmetrical enamel on the inside of their lower teeth. The teeth wore unevenly with chewing and developed sharp ridges that allowed neornithischians to break down tougher plant food than other dinosaurs.

Taxonomy

They are divided either into two or three groups. The first of these groups were Ornithopoda ("bird-foot"). The other two groups were the Pachycephalosauria ("thick-headed lizards") and Ceratopsia ("horned-face"). These latter two are sometimes combined as Marginocephalia ("fringed heads") owing to their shared features which included the bony shelf they possessed on the back of the skull.

The outline for your study of the Neornithischia dinosaurs is at right.  The first section covers several miscellaneous dinosaurs in this clade.  Sections 6 and 7 cover two significant orders of Neornithischian dinosaurs, the Hadrosaurs and the Ceratopsans.

    The complete family tree for this clade is presented below. For those that you will not be studying, the links to the appropriate Wikipedia page are included in case you are curious about the other dinosaurs.